X-COM: We The People
by sigmateamleader
Summary: Texas seceded from the U.S. Ian and his family fought against the invaders with a group called The Marshals, a military group used to replace the American armed forces. They seen Xcom die off and revive from ashes and rubble. After Texas fell, some of the Marshals joined Advent, some were killed, then there were those forced to roam... ***WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT!***
1. Chapter 1: Mr Spaceman

**XCOM: We The People**

 _ **Chapter 1: "Mr. Spaceman"**_

Long before the destruction of The United States, and her reconstruction into something devout to Advent's purposes, the state of Texas seceded from the rest of the doomed U.S. Ian, Mick, Maria, and Katy fought against the invading alien threat. From city to city with what was left of the Marshals, a military group used to replace the American armed forces, these four battled the invaders. Rising through the ranks, they seen Xcom die off and revive from mere ash and rubble, until Texas itself was brought to its knees and forced to change just as so many before it. Before long, the Marshals permanently disbanded and were seemingly forgotten, some remnants were rounded up and executed, others chose to bend the knee, but then there were those who were forced to roam…

Maria and Ian sat in the skeleton of a bombed house, upon its second floor, awaiting some friends who sought signs of Xcom's flying fortress. Sitting in one corner of the room, Ian looked at the prominent grassy field lit by the full moon wondering just how long they had to wait. He also hoped this new plan of his would work out well for his People.

"Could you stare any harder at that wall?" Maria, asks, calling the man's attention, yet she could tell she didn't have it, and if she did, it was not all of it, for he chuckled lightly as he gently rocked himself back and forth, holding his rifle as though it was Maria's hand.

Watching as the night crawled it's way into the early morning Ian, Maria, and a few others lie in wait as the townsfolk went about their daily lives, seemingly oblivious to the juxtaposed armed forces hiding in the skeleton of a lone house just off the main road.

Unbeknownst to the towns people, their day would take a violent turn.

Wheels rattled the rocks of the withered old street, and cold red and black boots followed. The Advent Captain, accompanied by two Advent troopers, made their way to a humble, yet well-dressed man who shook the Captain's hand with an easy smile.

"Well good morning, Captain." The bearded man spoke easily, ending the well-practiced handshake. "Welcome to the town of Cedar. I'm it's mayor, Gustavo, but please, call me Gus" The man added, looking straight into the visor of the Advent officer.

"That it is, sir…" The officer began with a strong, deep voice. "For today, Advent calls to you and your town to lend yourselves to it's military." He called, looking past Gus to the people who looked nervously in his direction. Boldly grabbing the quiet mayor's hand, the officer began some sort of sales pitch, explaining that when they gave their city and lives to Advent they'd live happier and receive certain benefits, and so much more rambling that the mayor had to halt him a moment, yet he continued to talk, promise, and preach.

Finally getting a chance to speak, Gus politely refused the offer.

"Well, I'm sorry, but the people here just aren't going to be so easily persuaded." The mayor adds with a guilty smirk, after noticing that his refusal removed the politesse from the officer, who began tightening the grip on his hand.

Pulling Mayor Gustavo closer to him, he spoke quietly and bluntly to get his point across. "You'll have no choice. Submit to Advent or face prosecution and certain death."

"You misunderstand me, Captain…" The mayor began, narrowing his vision, focusing solely on the officer.

Feeling a shooting pain dig just past his ribcage, the officer gasped, looking away from the man's face and to his hands.

"THE PEOPLE…will…NOT…allow…that." The mayor said slowly before removing the poisoned knife from the soldier's body, acquiring a sick smile as he collapsed into the street.

The sound of gunshots ripped through the dull mumble of the typical, lonely town's day, and as the officer lay on the ground, his men getting rained on by little bits of metal from thin air, his vision began to blur and darken as his hearing followed them into unconsciousness.

The last thing the frightened officer saw was Gus firing his small pistol as he moved to cover declaring "Power to The People" …

Music played indistinctly in the background as Ian, Mick, and a few others sat in a modern-day speakeasy rejoicing over the latest victory as they made plans for another. Someone would make a proposal that would be grumbled over by the listeners, then scrutinized and playfully tossed out the window. They also made a toast to Mayor Gus who was secretly Mick in disguise. These men kept at it for a while until one of them checked their watch and, between drunken belches, made note of the time.

Having finished their whiskey and beer, they dispersed. All but Ian and Mick lingered in town saying their goodbyes to some of the townsfolk, the real mayor was among them.

"Thanks again for your participation, Sam." Mick called, shaking the mayor's hand.

The short man promised to give his assistance whenever and wherever it was needed, before he asked why Mick had chosen the name Gustavo.

With a smirk Mick claimed it was just something he "came up with", hiding Gustavo's real identity as he turned around to leave.

The truth Mick hid from the mayor was that Gustavo was an old friend and part of their renegade group, or The People, as Ian dubbed them. Gus died somewhere in Bellville, Texas. His mission was to go with Mick, Kate and a few others to Austin, Texas to see how bad it had gotten since the occupation, destroying as many comms towers power supplies as they could while they progressed into Austin. From the group of ten, only Mick, Kate, and some nameless rookie made it home. They never made it to Austin, and ultimately failed the mission, only demolishing two of the enemy's buildings…seven men and women, seven friends, for only two small buildings.

Baker Street played from their jeep as Mick, Maria, and Ian traveled to their F.O.B. remembering, the people like Gus, and remembering home.

All seemed well for the trio, until Maria took notice of the stillness of the roadsides, for, typically, she'd see tons of wild animals roaming free among the free, unkempt, woodwork of the land, however this time seemed to be different.

With a curse, she reached into the front half of the jeep, fiercely tugging at the wheel, causing the vehicle to swerve from the road just in time for a bullet to wedge itself into the cold side of the truck, damaging nothing more than the jeep.

"Hey! What-the-fuck!?" Mick called, angrily pushing Maria back to her side of the vehicle, to which her only rebut was to command them from the jeep and into cover.

Helping Mick into cover, Ian assumed, "You saw something, didn't you?" Knowing of her PCS, Ian became accustomed to trusting Maria's gut feelings, due to the chip that increased her perception. All too often she could tell whenever a situation didn't seem "right", to Ian this meant he'd do well to prepare himself for the unexpected.

"Looks like those chips actually work." Maria chuckled, staying hidden.

With very little effort, Maria exposed the sniper and showed Mick hoping he'd counter-snipe him, luckily for them Mick hit his mark. The other two just sighed in relief.

Rolling his eyes, Mick stowed away his rifle sarcastically asking "So, are there any other augments you have?"

"Nope!" Ian interrupts, wrapping his arm around Maria. "I've checked."

Ignoring his girlfriend's playful jab to his shoulder, Ian had himself a good laugh as they returned to their seats and rode away, inbound to their forward operating base.

After the day came to a close, Ian lay in a thin shirt with long basketball shorts, staring into the emptiness of the roof above his head. They had no casualties today, and they had ripped the Advent a new one, however his People planned to migrate yet again, perhaps into what used to be Louisiana, or maybe further north with hopes of thwarting whoever had been tracking them.

Ian kept letting his mind wonder until he began to worry himself with what-ifs and pointless details. Feeling he'd thought too hard for far too long on the irrelevant, he sat up in bed and poured himself a shot. He felt a familiar grasp as Maria gently wrapped her arms around him, lending him solace.

"We did it, Boss" Maria declares with a sigh of relief, only letting go to grab herself a shot glass. Ian poured them both a shot. Raising a glass Maria quoted a part of an old song they used to enjoy, "Power. Power. The law of the land…"

With a grim grin of what only people like them would know of as agreeance, Ian recites, "Those living for death will die by their own hand."


	2. Chapter 2: One foot on the platform

_**Chapter 2: "One foot on the platform"**_

Moving northeastward, Ian knew The People would still have their reputation of being a form of the boogie man, however up here the people were too caught up with their day-to-day lives beneath the foot of the Advent coalition. Only foolish angsty teens would go in search of them because of some ignorant dare or to prove something. These efforts would only get them reprimanded, or chased off by the local Advent correctional officers.

Before long our group of protagonists moved into a neutral area beneath the guise of refugees escaping the terrorist group Xcom.

Snuffing out his cigarette, Sixto, an old friend of Mick and Ian's, couldn't help but catch the view of Advent troopers shaking down a man before his son's eyes, only pausing to stare him down, as if to threaten that he and his loved ones would be next. Raising an eyebrow, he walked on, singing in a dull tone Fortunate Son so that the troopers could hear as his voice trailed off.

Similar sights continued until they got to a more rural town, in Georgia.

"Well, here we are." Mick greets quietly, focusing his attention to Advent troops loading a large train with unmarked boxes. Counting ten enemy units in total, Mick quietly followed his friends, Sixto and Samson, into a nearby bar where Maria and Ian awaited their information.

Playing with his skull bandana, Ian paced around the room, with his beer in the opposite hand.

"Welcome back, cousin." Maria greets, cheerfully tossing Mick a chilled bottled water.

Breaking the plastic seal Mick retorts "Thanks…but how am I your cousin? You two ain't married."

With a smile Maria muttered something along the lines of "Not yet" as she hugged Ian who just recently sat down. Noticing Ian was trying to stay away from the subject, she tried to get a reaction by sitting on one of his lap and leaning over for a hug.

"When was that supposed to be, anyway?" Samson asked remembering how long they'd been together.

Lacking an acceptable remark, Ian forced himself quiet by taking a large swig from his partially frozen glass. He only stared at the group from above the glass, watching Sixto and Samson chuckle, amused by the odd conversation, or lack thereof. Looking over to Mick, he seen the man was fiddling with whatever he could to keep from getting drawn back into the conversation. Then he seen Maria awaiting an answer, angry yet hopeful.

"You're gonna run outta that eventually." She predicts, finding a seat on the desk directly in front of their boss, Ian.

Rolling his eyes, Ian stopped chugging the cold beer, angrily slamming the oversized mug onto the table beside his expectant girlfriend.

"Listen, it ain't gonna be anytime soon…" Ian begins, wiping the foam from his face "…but if we can live long enough to see it get close, I'll let ya fuckin know!" He concluded, urging them to resume their duties.

Finally getting down to business the group decided they would ambush the train that Mick noticed after walking a good way into town. The plan was to follow the train, staying several miles ahead of it. After it was far from the town, they would derail the vehicle, then move in for the kill. There would be six units within the town stalking the train as it was loading up and refueling. There was another six hidden within the forest, prepping for the incursion.

Mick had an eye for detail and was a bit of a perfectionist, traits that seldom annoyed his cousin. Ironically Ian would come to rely on those quirks.

Knowing Mick was thorough, Ian let him, Sixto, Samson, and three others baby sit the train while Ian, Maria, and four others prepped the tracks, and took their positions in the forest.

"Sir. We're all set." A hefty man called, walking to Ian and looking around nervously. The man was about Ian's height, and though he looked chunky, it was mostly muscle. Scratching his head, he handed over the detonator. Slapping Ian's shoulder, he called "We've got this, papa."

Checking her rifle Maria notes "Brian looks nervous", watching as the big guy hid with his and Ian's friend Dante.

"Are you?" Ian wondered, finishing a beer and tossing the can aside.

With a sigh, Maria answered his question with one of her own. "A train…An -ACTUAL-Fucking-TRAIN?!"

Realizing they could still easily die, Ian hugged his girlfriend, promising things will be as they should be, rather than using the typical "Everything's going to be alright" phrase. Unfortunately, it didn't do any good. Maria still felt uneasy.

Trying to calm her nerves, her and Ian sat together behind a tremendous spreading oak. Sitting with her back against the tree and her boyfriend resting his head on her lap, they listened to the silence of the woods as they hid.

"So, you didn't answer our question…" Maria recalled, running her fingers through her lover's short hair, to which he sighed and repositioned himself.

"You know why I didn't answer that question…" Ian began to say, holding Maria's hand. "If one of us got hurt out here, the other one wouldn't be able to function. Not appropriately anyway."

With a scoff, Maria tried to dispute Ian's opinion, only to be interrupted by Michael, a newer member of The People who joined after his fraternity was torn down for bearing false witness and overall bringing displeasure to the god kings worshipped by the aliens. This radical means of censorship was the last straw for Michael and some others who escaped the college's destruction. Later they were recruited by Brian and Sixto.

"Hey man, Mick's squad ran into a bit of a problem." Michael informs, as if on que.

The troopers loaded their train like worker ants going in and out of their mound. The poor ants were oblivious to the threats awaiting them.

Watching from the roof of a far-off building Mick and Sixto seen the workers slaving away at the train, but their attention was soon diverted to the far-left side of the town. Trudging clumsily through the wilderness, a group of eight disheveled people made their way into the town.

Eyes widening Sixto points out the intruding party of eight, fastening his skull bandana to his face and repositioning his beanie. "Fucking raiders. I'll tell Samson."

"No need." Mick called, halting Sixto, who tucked his long curly hair into his hat.

With little effort and an eerily calm demeanor, Mick aimed his rifle to get a better look at the new challengers. To him they looked to be dirty people that fell out of the Mad Max movies and into a very bad situation.

Looking over to the soldiers by the train, Mick fired a round into the head of the commanding officer of the Advent troopers drawing everyone's attention to the band of raiders running to the train station with their weapons at the ready.

Digging into his nest, Mick took the reins commanding "Go with the others I'll cover…" Sixto muttered in acknowledgment, only to stopped by Mick, yet again, but this time the sniper only said one number.

Acknowledging with a nod, Sixto ran into the fray, after radioing Michael.

"Keep outta plain view. These poor bastards will be focused on the raiders." Sixto ordered after the squad regrouped. Sneaking their way up to the terminal watching the Advent fight off the raiders. This band of raiders were somewhat organized, but they lacked the discipline that helped The People thrive for so long. "Trust me boys…" Sixto began to promise, "...this day's gonna be good." Finishing his sentence, he heard footsteps hurrying closer to their location. Cutting down two approaching troopers, Sixto ducked back into cover, finishing his promise to his friends. "Think sex & candy!"

Seeing an Advent chopper drop four more troops into the vicinity, The People's squad opened fire on Advent's soldiers and the raiders, indiscriminately.

Awaiting the train, Michael got the all clear, and notified Ian. "Ok, Mick and Sixto got things under control. We're proceeding on time."

With a nod and a hum, Ian announced "Very good. Operation: Spare Tire is back on." Shooting a glance at Maria, Ian continues, "Dig in, be patient, keep three units on either side of the train, and wait for the crash, not the boom."

"For The People!" Brian calls, raising his rifle in triumph.

"And revenge, compadre" Ian concurs, locking and loading.

Keeping their eyes open for the train, Maria wondered how they would get the revenge, Ian had referred to for so long.

"Well by living, and multiplying of course." Ian suggests with a chuckle, knowing the aliens disliked the humans.

Misconstruing his words, Maria asks "You mean like roaches?"

Lowering his skull bandana Ian explained "No baby, that's surviving. I mean Living…actually living." Chuckling a bit, to break the pause, Ian told her that when she compared them to roaches he imagined human-sized roaches with guns, in their shoes, doing the small, comedic things people do every day. "Maybe that's what Houston looks like now. I wonder if they tried to bomb the roaches too." He joked. Listening to the train speed near.

Staring from the trees Ian's squad watched as the explosion took out the tracks, causing the train topple to its side, helplessly.

Things seem to move in slow motion, for Dante, as they stormed the train. His earbud played "California Dreamin" by The Mamas & The Papas. They slid open the doors firing on a good handful of disoriented soldiers. Dragging a few of the living troopers out of the train, the squad had their faces covered so the aliens could see from their eyes up.

"Hello. We The People declare this a victory for our side." Ian introduces, removing the troopers' helmets exposing their true faces. Faces that proved to be a far cry from human, despite being humanoid, in general. Covering the soldier's mouths the squad transferred their captives to the town to hold a public execution.

Rounding up everyone in the town, excluding the children and a few authority figures to watch over them, The People held a public execution of the troops captured by Ian's squad. After seeing the contents of what the soldiers were hauling, Ian and his people exposed all of the secrets they could find, keeping very little from the townsfolk.

The Advent would still abduct some people and melt them down, but all The People knew was that innocent humans were being melted alive by what should've been their protectors, so they told the people, causing an outrage in that town and others nearby. Unfortunately, the Advent coalition covered their tracks well, dismissing the evidence as an elaborate smear tactic by the terroristic group, XCOM.

"Good evening, friends." Ian greets, addressing the Georgian towns people. "I understand that y'all aren't too fond of the Advent coalition…well neither are we." Ian explains introducing his group as an entity that is neither raider, nor Advent, but one of peace, through a hostile means. "Please understand that we mean you no harm, but instead we seek to ease your burdens." He continued noticing the crowd settle. "We will remove the Advent coalition from this town by prying it from the roots hastening their end." The crowd was interested, until Ian and Sixto brought evidence of the crimes perpetrated by the coalition. Then they showed the towns people the faces of the guilty, without their helmets, explaining that these are of the people who harmed them.

Proceeding to read out their crimes, Sixto listened for any disagreements, of which there were none. The appalled audience was in full agreement, despite being stunned.

"I, the appointed leader of, The People, by popular vote, and by military rank of the once great United States of America, hereby find these people guilty of crimes against those they've sworn to protect, and crimes against humanity. Based on the evidence removed from that station, owned, and operated, by the Advent coalition. Is there any who oppose this ruling?" Ian paused for a while, letting the townsfolk talk it over, until they unanimously labeled the troopers as guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt. "I would ask if those of you who are squeamish, please cover your eyes and ears…" Very few gasped, as Ian and the rest of the bandana wearing people readied their rifles, and shut out the impending violence, some simply looked down and crossed themselves. "…'We knew the world would be the same. Few people laughed. Few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, The Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu was trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, he takes on his multiarmed form and says… Now I am become death, The destroyer of worlds!' Power to The People!"

Firing their rifles Ian, and The People freed the small town.


	3. Chapter 3: All along the watchtower

_**XCOM: We The People**_

 _ **Chapter 3: "All along the watchtower"**_

A young woman, waking up for her seventeenth birthday, found herself tied and laying on the cold cement floor of a very small cell. She had not conformed to the newest rules set in motion by the Advent coalition within her small Japanese town. Hoping to reason with the authorities, using her knowledge of the law, she was put out of her parents' home and considered an anarchist by the authorities. In jail for approximately a month for trying to flee the country, whilst being a person of interest, she was later tried and sentenced to execution by firing squad.

"Naomi Nakashima is my friend's name." A petite teen informed. "She and several others will be executed unless your people do something." Urged the young lady, nearly pleading the XCOM informant.

Taking down some basic information he thanked the young girl for her bravery, swearing XCOM would do what they could.

When the time came, Naomi and a few others were lined up in a sectioned off area at the edge of a small road leading away from the town to the local cemetery. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until gunshots split the night.

Moving circumspectly behind the scenes, XCOM's operatives made it just in time to postpone the execution. Some shots came from behind the large headstones, some even came from the crowd of onlookers that followed the Authorities to the execution site.

John Houston, one of the many XCOM members assaulting the area, shoved through the crowd of fleeing civilians, blasting through a few Advent soldiers near the captives allowing another man to unbind the prisoners.

Tossing the political prisoners weapons, John and the other XCOM member, a man by the name of Joji Miller, brought them to a safer area to regroup.

"You three get to the L.Z. We'll be behind you." John orders hoping three units would be enough to clear the area so the chopper could pick them up.

"Seiko, I thought I saw you back there!" Naomi calls, running away with the group.

Flashing a nervous smile to her friend behind her, Seiko called "It's great to see you too, but for now we've gotta get outta here!"

Continuing closer to the landing zone, John seen that the trio he sent ahead was overwhelmed by a volatile mix of Advent soldiers and a variety of aliens. There stood approximately twelve hostile units restricting John's small group of eight from the LZ, not counting the crowd that was chasing them from the graveyard. Five people under John's command were the escaped prisoners, the other escapees were wiped out before they even reached the tree line.

Joji tried to pull a man into cover, but did so too late. Taking cover, Joji tossed a grenade, fragging a couple of sectoids and a trooper, before firing at a duo of Mutons that drew near, killing a second prisoner. Seiko and two others kept the Mutons suppressed long enough for John to kill one and wound the second.

The wounded Muton tossed a grenade that blew up the man and the woman that stood with Seiko. Disoriented by the blast, Seiko escaped with only minor cuts and tears.

Shouting her best friend's name, Naomi ran with another prisoner to help Seiko into better cover. Firing as they ran to Seiko's aid, one of the two escapees barely managed to kill the Muton that nearly done Seiko in.

The last unnamed escapee was gunned down by a well armored Mech, leaving only the untrained Naomi to watch over her incapacitated friend. Naomi tried to fire from the safety their cover, but only managed to graze the robot.

Tossing a large EMP grenade, Joji ruined the bot menacing the two girls. Dragging his sword through a few enemies, Joji made his way over to the girls, and together they cleared a path for John who recently came under fire.

Engrossed in the struggle, the squad failed to notice the arrival of almost a dozen more enemy units. It wasn't until their evac chopper arrived that the forest grew quieter. The battle chopper made a few rounds firing on any Advent or aliens in sight, until less than a handful remained. Exterminating enough hostiles, the pilots set down behind a cluster of trees, deploying a few more XCOM soldiers to cover their friends.

John and his team ran for the chopper, seldom stopping to return fire. They ran passed the soldiers covering their escape. Joji hopped into the chopper and offered his hand to help Seiko into the chopper. Staggering her way over to the man, relying on Naomi for balance Seiko reached out her hand.

Giving her friend a boost into the vehicle, Naomi heard a weak gasp, and all at once, Seiko fell back into her friend's arms with three apple-sized red splotches on her trunk that seemed to rapidly dilate. One over the right breast and two closer to her stomach.

Joji, holding Seiko's rifle, shouldered it and began firing into a crowd of charging troopers. A young blond haired woman and a burly Frenchman, with dreads, shoved the two high-school girls into the chopper. Signaling for the rest of the fire team to board, John helped them inside as Joji and the blond woman provided cover fire until the Frenchman slammed the door shut.

Naomi cried as she was separated from her friend by, Joji, the blond lady, and the Frenchman.

"Look at me. Try to stay focused" The blond prompts, introducing herself as Jana, and the Frenchman as Herman. "We're gonna make things better." Jana assured, hastily undoing the buttons of Seiko's school shirt. Speaking quickly, in French, a South African male seemed to be walking Herman through some sort of quick fix to save the young teen from bleeding out.

The ride seemed to take centuries as Naomi rode with Seiko and the team of XCOM soldiers to the flying fortress.

Jana, Herman, and Jean, the South African medic, did everything they could with the scarce resources they had in the chopper however it was not enough. Seiko died in her friend's arms that night.

With a heavy sigh, Jean made note of the time of her passing to Jana and Herman. He was sure to speak in a language shared by the three of them so Naomi wouldn't freak out, by the looks on their faces the rest of the squad understood.

Upon their arrival, Seiko's remains were taken away from Naomi, who tried to follow Jean and Joji. She was halted by Herman who calmed her down and made her sit in some sort of lobby area.

"Remind you of someone?" Herman, asked Jana, recalling when the girl was in Naomi's shoes, almost two years ago.

Popping open a beer, Jana quickly dismissed her friend's comment. "No idea. I'll bet it sucks to be her."

Seeing through the girl's façade Herman walked away asking, "Then why do you look at her as though she were a mirror?" Feeling her angry stare smack him in the back of his head, he left after telling her not to be so cold. Jana rolled her eyes and looked back through the window to see Naomi and John looking back at her. Jana took a swig from the can. Raising an eyebrow, she scoffed at them, angrily asking "What?!" before sucking her teeth and walking off.

Wasting time trying to get the thought of Seiko's death out of her head, Jana sat in the rec room, listening to music blare through her headphones. She was so caught up in her thoughts, she wasn't too sure what song she was listening to, but to her it didn't matter.

Walking into the room, the soldiers acknowledged Captain Houston with friendly head-nods and greetings, but then scurried away at his order. "Everyone out!" They filed out of the room, acknowledged by their commanding officer. Blocking Jana's path, Houston commanded her to stay and talk to him for a bit.

"Aye sir. What about?" She asked, standing at attention.

"Speak freely, Corporal. How're you feeling about Seiko." John seemed to pry. The girl stayed silent. "You couldn't have felt nothing." He continues, leaving a bit of a silence, hoping she'd at least explain why she wasn't behaving like her usual self. "…it'd be inhuman if you felt nothing."

"It's my sister…" Jana's voice cracked a bit. "It was Kate. She reminded me too much of My sister Kate." She continued, rubbing her face to keep from crying.

"Yeah, she reminded me of her too." John recalled sitting on a nearby barstool turning to face Jana, resting his elbows on the table. "Don't you think she'd want you to be happy and watch over these dipshits?" He asked, remembering the better times they'd had. "God knows these guys need someone to keep them together after days like these." He adds, looking at the pictures of loved-ones tacked onto a board.

"Sir, Central says you might wanna see this!" Joji calls, standing with half of his body in the room.

"Right, let's go!" John agrees, hurrying out of the room with Joji. Jana stopped for a moment and looked at her phone, noticing the song that she was tuning out was "Knocking on Heaven's door" by Guns N' Roses. With a scoff, she exited the app and followed the two men to the briefing room.

The commander had Central explain the latest story in the news. It encompassed what The People did in Georgia. It showed Ian, Mick, Sixto, and Maria centerstage, wearing their bandanas when they were setting up to execute the Advent soldiers.

"How's that for a fuckin' demonstration?" Joji chuckled, watching the troopers get what they deserve.

In agreement, and slightly amused, Jana states "We should try recruiting them."

The news cautioned that, if found, these men and women should be reported to the local authorities. They are crafty, armed, and dangerous, but if the citizens would come forward with any information, there would be swift justice given to these perpetrators. When the report was over the commander ordered Central to search for The People, and attempt to make contact.

Speeding through the clouds, The Avenger's engines whirled as they advanced to North America.

Watching the clouds part before her eyes, Naomi thought it was most beautiful sight she'd seen in a long time. "If only Seiko could see this." She wished, wiping her eyes.


	4. Chapter 4: Over the hills & far away

_**Chapter 4: Over the hills & far away**_

Jana swore she knew that face, but how could that be him. Surely he died in Texas. The similarities were too great she couldn't help but call the man's name.

"Hey, Mick!" Ian called, stopping his cousin, before he left the room. "How many did you get?" Ian wondered, watching Mick partially shutting the door.

Peeking from the cracked doorway, mick calls "Four."

The door creeks closed, then locks trapping whatever Mick had labeled Four, in the room with him. Approximately eight people sat tied to chairs in a dimmed, soundproofed room. Many of which were the raiders that tried to assault the town's train station, and the other part of the group was two Advent troopers, and one captain.

Samson kept the seven prisoners company, bringing a couple of forty ounces to go along with his glass of Jameson. Beginning to question some of the soldiers, he started with the Advent, eventually making his way to the raiders. He began to lay-into the Raiders' commanding officer.

Stopping to crank up the mixtape Sixto put together for these occasions, Samson accidentally made it blare "We Belong" by Pat Benatar, then laughed heartily at the song's inappropriate timing, then even harder at the fact that Sixto, a guy who listened to things like Children of Bodem and Lamb of God, would see fit to toss that song into the mix.

Unable to explain the previous moment of hilarity, he shook his head saying "P-Pat-fucking-Benatar? Oh…why-fucking-not, right?" Looking back to the raider commander's battered and bruised face, after using it as a speedbag, Samson sucked his teeth, taunting, "Oooh-hoo-hoo. The state of your fuckin dinner wear, mate…" before lightly slapping the guy's face.

It was about this time that Mick entered the room, raising an eyebrow at Samson's drunken antics.

"Okay, my turn." Mick calls, getting Samson to cut off the old-school stereo and telling him to give them some alone time.

"Is this coz of Pat Benatar?" Samson thought, pointing to the radio that had already switched songs.

Jokingly, Mick claimed, "Well partially…" Chuckling a bit, he explained "…it's cuz I need a forty." Pointing at the beer. To which Samson lifted the bottle so that he could share. "No. A fresh one. Be sure that it's one you won't miss." Mick calls watching his friend exit the room, chuckling lightly, before asking "Pat Benatar?"

Mick looked around the room, sighting his wheeled cart holding tons of knives, tools, and surgical equipment. He glanced at the seven people, acknowledging that one of the groups of four was cut short, remarking emotionlessly on his lack of "participants" as he would say, straight-faced.

"We'll start with the obvious…" Mick began, prepping his pistol. "I've got humans, and aliens. Both are very different from the other." Pausing to look at both sides, Mick was sure to stand in the center of the room. "You see the differences, sure. Those are easy, but you fail to see two BIIIG similarities." Picking out a knife from the cart, mick felt the blade with his thumb, checking the sharpness. Walking to an Advent trooper, he slowly cut the soldier's face, holding his head, so it couldn't move. Showing everyone the blood, he cleaned the blade, before doing the same to one of the raiders, before showing everyone his blood. Cleaning the knife a second time, he explained "You'll all bleed…" Disengaging the safety on his pistol, Mick shot the raider commander, then shot the Advent Commander to explain his second point. "You'll all die."

The two parties began to panic until Mick fired a few rounds into the new corpses, shutting everyone up by doing so.

Looking at the worried faces, Mick asks with a straight face "Now…who wants to be my first…'friend'?"

Sitting together, Ian and Maria had some beer and big pretzels, discussing what they might do after Mick got his intel.

"Part of me feels guilty about letting him do 'that'." Maria began to complain, sipping her beer.

Raising an eyebrow, Ian asked "You're still bothered by that?" almost astonished, given how long that practice had been going on. Maria and Ian debated the cruelty of their tactics, despite agreeing and allowing it for so long. "Baby, I do this for you…" Ian began to explain, walking over to Maria's side of the table, draping his arms around her, wrapping her in a hug, continuing "…I do this for us…all of us." Kissing her atop her head, Ian asked that she simply cooperate with him. "You don't hafta have any part in it at all. Just know that we're doing this with good reason."

"You've gotta be cruel to be kind." Kate quotes, interrupting the two. Kate entered through the door before them, as if presented on a stage viewed by millions.

Massaging Maria's shoulders, Ian adds "In the right measure." He uncapped a cold one offering it to her, but she only shook her head in refusal. "Sure is good to see you alive and well again." Ian adds, refilling Maria's cup with the drink meant for Kate. Only partially pleased, Maria greeted Kate by her nickname, Katie. The greeting didn't seem to be a happy one.

"You're doing it again, aren't you, Boss?" Kate asks, angrily folding her arms. Wanting to hit Ian with something, Kate decided to refrain from that, due to her recent recovery. "Where is Mick?" was all she could ask, cutting off Ian's flawed rationalization of their cruelty. Maria quickly answered the question, ratting out her boyfriend and his cousin, while completely ignoring Ian's advice to turn a blind eye to what's been going on.

Shaking her head, Kate left to go find Mick, and try to stop him from hurting anyone else. Watching the woman walk away angrily, Ian grumbled angrily at Maria.

"You don't think that she has the right to be mad?" The dark-haired woman asked, handing Ian another beer. Ian agreed that she had every right to be angry with him for getting Mick to do something that was so cruel. He expected her to be far angrier at him, yet she didn't even raise her voice. "That's not what I mean. I guess I'm the only one that she told."

…

Elsewhere, on the grounds, Mick made a slow progression on one of the Advent soldiers, by prying for questions, and fingernails. He crushed the alien's damaged hand under the forty-ounce bottle. After bleeding the soldier dry of his answers, Mick offered the soldier a bit of the beer, crashing it over his head.

"Now…" Calls Mick, dropping the emptied husk of the crumbling bottle. "…see how easy that was?"

Distracted by a knock on the door, Mick promised to return shortly. A promise that would be unfulfilled, thanks to Kate and Ian who made their way to the hidden torture room. Maria's explanation made Ian hurry after Kate. If anyone was going to get her access to where the interrogation room was, it'd be him.

"I'll go in and call him for you." Ian offered, knocking on the door, before sliding his way into the room. Sealing it behind him, he called for his cousin.

"Boss!" Mick calls back to him, motioning for him over to the human captives. "I think I'm starting to believe in miracles!" Mick jokes with a feigned display of happiness as he undid the wrapping from a woman's mouth. "Give us that fairytale one more time fraulein." He demanded, stepping aside for his cousin, but Ian choose not to address the woman, not before dismissing Mick, giving him brief news of his visitor.

Seeing the woman, who was in her late teens, crying frantically, Ian spoke calmly. Hoping to get intelligible words from her, Ian paced back and forth, reading Mick's notes on the three dead Advent soldiers. Seeming only minorly intrigued. "Please, try to be calm, and tell me what you told the other guy." Ian advised, trying to read Mick's notes. After about several minutes of the girl's incessant crying, Ian taped her mouth. Keeping the same tone, Ian introduced himself to the remaining trio. "Evenin' everyone. You can call me Sir." Shushing the crying woman, Boss proceeds by acknowledging that Mick didn't complete his job, a job that would've been long complete, interruption or not. He also took note of the fact that there wasn't a scratch on either of the women, or the man. Pacing for a while, trying to let the woman calm herself, Ian finally decided to make himself comfortable.

The other female, sporting highlighter blue hair, tried to get Ian's attention, but failed due to her partner's muffled crying, and the loud radio.

"You're really scared, I can tell…" Ian admits grabbing the crying blonde's face. "…but bear one thing in mind…" He ordered, toppling chair on it's back, pointing the tip of a knife at one her eyes, holding her head in a vice like grip. "…the man that left was but a student, and guess who taught him this trade…" The girl sniffled a bit, growing quieter. Ian, retrieving a pair of scissors, cut the lady's blond hair for a bit, after sitting her chair upright. Putting away the scissors, while straight-faced he explained "I can remove your fingers just as easily…or your teeth…eyes…by god you'll cooperate or you'll live on as my macabre jigsaw puzzle."

Smoking a cherry-vanilla cigar, Ian turned up the radio enjoying a slowed rendition of "Hallelujah" by a nameless, acoustic vocalist. Looking at an old picture of Maria and him. Remembering why he could be nothing short of implacable, it was for those he cared for. Cruel to be kind, for there were no alternatives.

Coming to a piano solo, Ian noticed the blue haired woman, trying to get his attention. Lowering the volume, the man removed her gag.

"She told that guy about our loot." The other lady explained with a nervous sigh. "She was kidnapped by that one prick at the end and taken there." The blue haired raider explained, referring to their squad leader.

"It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah!" Ian chuckles, giving the raider his applause, extinguishing his cigar. "So Cybil here knows where y'all hide your stash, is that it?" Covering the lady's mouth. He stopped and thought a moment, thinking about that so-called treasure. What did these people consider treasure? By the look of them, Ian could tell these three were too healthy to look like the typical strung out raiders. Perhaps some sort of annexation occurred and these three couldn't escape, much like the humans whenever the aliens first invaded. "I see why he didn't bother hurting you three. You were cooperative, even whenever enslaved by the raiders." He figured, looking to the blue haired woman for confirmation.

It went without saying that the three slaves were forced to experience a multitude of atrocities. He always feared that something like that would happen to someone he loved.

"I'm sure something far worse than a kidnapping happened to you…" Ian whispers, before dragging her chair into a corner. "Tell me what I want to know, and I will help you. There's tons of men, women and children that go through what you have, maybe even worse. Help me and we will save them."

A thought came to him; Mick didn't hurt these three, because they were not truly guilty. They were forced by the raiders that captured them, forced to kill, pleasure, and serve. The girl was more compliant, after she could talk. Ian even gave her a smoke and untied her.

As it turned out the young lady told Mick what they'd been forced to guard and retrieve, however, when she was enslaved, she was transported with a burlap sack covering her head. Luckily the raiders were sloppy, they set up shop next to an old landmark. A large statue of a zeppelin, cracked and forgotten, in the middle of nowhere. The girl explained that the people guarding the stockpile were also slaves, for rarely would a raider have to fulfill such a meaningless task. Perhaps a band of raiders would come by to deposit or withdraw from the stock, but aside from that there wouldn't be a raider for miles.

"Ma'am, if this works out for my people, I will not only free you and them, but I'll allow you three to fight by our side." Ian pitched, offering to shake the girl's hand.

Later that night, Mick and Ian returned to free the three slaves. After they got medical attention and some food, they would be allowed to rest a while before they got the chance to earn their bandanas. For about a week they rested and trained, while The People searched for any areas marked by a stone zeppelin wrapped in vines. Checking the validity, Samson and four others reported that the girl's instructions were right on the money.

"Very good. We'll prep for operation D'yer Mak'er at 2100 hours." Maria commands, looking at Mick and Ian talking casually in the distance, as if it were just another day.


	5. Chapter 5: D'yer Mak'er

_**Chapter 5: "D'yer Mak'er"**_

"They were innocent!?" Shrieks Kate, accidentally choking on her water, in response to Mick's explanation. Staring at him speechless, she ran her fingers through her hair. "You tortured innocent people." Kate reiterated, still in shock.

Correcting her, Mick explained that the Advent guys were doomed to die either way, but the only human who deserved to be there was the kidnapping, plundering, rapist that led a hapless squad of slaves into battle. The trio were shaken up, for Mick knew who was guilty not only by the blond slave's explanation, but by a prior gut feeling he got by reading the behavior and reactions of the four humans.

"If ya think about it; I only did wrong by killing the slaver first, instead of prolonging his experience." Mick recalled, seemingly downtrodden by the wrong actions. Despite some minor confusion, all went according to plan, they got the intel they required, plus an added bonus, then freed a few slaves by killing their owner. The slaves were even considering joining the cause.

While that couple bickered, their relative seemed to rest easy.

Resting, Ian recalled when Kate first got hurt. From what the intel and informants explained, she took a round to her chest and left arm, and fell out of the Skyranger after it went down near The Avenger. Whoever survived the crash was covered by The Avenger and rescued almost immediately, had it not been for the flying fortress, the aliens would have tried to scour the nearby woods, finding Kate fastened to a stretcher, suspended from a tree. Fortunately for her, The People heard the commotion and arrived seeking XCOM, but left with the heavily injured Kate. The news of XCOM's retreat was passed on to Ian, who also heard of Kate's survival. Rounding up Mick and Maria, they hurried to that part of the US to retrieved their family member.

This occurrence wasn't as great as they'd hoped. Their family member was saved, but her and Mick's unborn child died in the womb. She had no idea that she was pregnant until after she awoke, battered and bruised to hear the bittersweet details of her incident.

"They're still killing our family." Mick grumbled to himself, remembering how he lost his parents, and later, his two younger brothers. "They added one more of us to that list…" He thought silently, hugging his wife. "…as penance we'll cut them in droves." He swore to himself

Watching from afar, Maria and Ian waited while the two of them paid their respects to their family.

Breaking the silence, Maria asks "Do you think she'll go back with XCOM?"

Ian was quite sure she would. Kate could still fight well enough. There wasn't any real damage, despite the loss of her child. "Probably, but we've gotta get those supplies so we can punch holes in the Advent." Ian reminded, remembering the human skeletons in tubes of acid, within the unmarked crates on the train.

Later that day, Sixto spoke with the trio of recently freed slaves. He and Brian tried to get their things ready, and make sure the three newbies were up to the task.

Carrie, the slave with the blue undercut hairdo, assured them that her team was more than ready.

There would be nine of The People on this mission, in total. The first squad, called Lucky, comprised of five people. Carrie, then the blond slave, who was named Christine, Maria, Brian, and Ian. This team would infiltrate the building and move onto the hidden storage area, neutralizing any hostiles and freeing slaves. The second team, comically referred to as Foreplay, would not go in the building, rather they would stay outside providing cover for Lucky, and escorting slaves to safety. This team would be comprised of Mick, Kate, Sixto, and the Asian slave, Atila.

Taking a jab at Sixto, Brian jokingly asked "You up for a bit of foreplay?"

"With you?" Asked Sixto, with a false sense of concern. "Nah…nah…I ain't in to fat girls."

The clock slowly ticked away, creeping its way to 2100 hours. Watching the clock seemingly move in slow motion, Christine explained that many of the slaves would be forced to fight, but she was confident that the promise of freedom would dissuade any resistance they could muster, insuring complete cooperation from the enslaved.

"That's great news." Ian acknowledged, before apologizing to the girl for the initial misunderstanding. "Trust me, The People will find a place for your friends, whether they prefer fighting with us, or living normal lives in a free city." He informed, patting the lady on the back before moving on to the next task.

"Thank you, Boss." Christine calls, watching her leader working with the soldiers under his command. To her this seemed surreal, she'd not seen people like Mick, Ian, or anyone of The People work together in this fashion and breed success. This new experience filled her, Carrie, and Atila with a hope that they, up until now, had never felt.

"Please remember some of these people may not want to fight, but they will, because they were given no other choice." Mick cautioned the rest of the militant group, before speaking the group's catchphrase.

Hopping from the chopper, the teams split up, combing the woods for any lookouts, all of which would be slavers/raiders. Mick and Atila took out a couple of slavers on their side. On Lucky's side, Christine and Ian chopped down two with their swords, while the other three neared the entrance. Elsewhere, for Foreplay, Sixto and Atila pulled a slaver into the brush, quickly ending him with their knives.

"Power to The People" Sixto calls withdrawing his knife.

Lucky infiltrated the building, restraining a couple of slaves. Carrie lowered her black paisley bandana, letting the two know they were here to free them.

After the outside was secured, Atila took up watch, keeping his eyes open for his friends. The rest of Foreplay set their sights on the building.

"We're good with Foreplay." Maria whispered to Ian, confirming the other squad's success, watching as he motioned for the other three to proceed onwards.

Stopping Maria, Ian held in laughter, trying to say "Wouldn't be the first-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll shoot you!" Maria whispered, angrily jabbing her lover with the barrel of her weapon. Shaking his head, he proceeded to breach the building.

"We're in." Sixto called, confirming their friends' entry into the facility.

With a snicker, Atila, in a low voice, called out "Ooh-la-la" looking for better footing within the damp woods.

"I think I shouldda' hit you with that forty." Mick grumbled, rolling his eyes at Atila.

Despite the gests, the serious tone never truly left the men and women assaulting the compound. Brian took point, just behind him, Carrie walked, watching his back. The halls led them deeper and deeper. The silence bothered Ian immensely, for there was not a noise greater in all the heavens, nor the worlds below them.

Reaching the end of a hallway, Brian seen that it had neither a passage leading forward, nor right, so he exhaled taking a left meeting only gunfire, alarms, and flashing red lights. The building's innards and exterior erupted with a disconcerting wail of the sirens.

"Hija de puta!" Shouts Brian, grasping for his dominant arm, firing his rifle with the other, scrambling to cover.

Returning fire, Carrie and Christine made way for Maria who shouldered her grenade launcher. Firing once, she removed the humans and any walls or doors that stood in their way.

"Love the way ya bang!" Ian called, helping tie up Brian's arm.

"Stop being a faggot!" Maria called, angrily. Switching back to her assault rifle, her and the other two women went ahead, with Christine on point.

With a grunt of pain, Brian agreed. "Yea, shut up faggot."

Applying excessive pressure on his friend's minor wound, Ian pointed at him silently, before helping him up. They went further into the building clearing out some more hostiles and helping the slaves.

Looking around after hearing a small explosion, Atila noticed two small trucks, owned by the raiders, parked just out of clear view. Two more were quickly approaching, a fact made known by Atila. Loading a grenade launcher, Sixto fired a round and hit the bigger truck. The dingy blue Ford Expedition burst into a hot cloud of smoke and flames. Chunks of the bodywork flew in all directions, some even rained upon the dark green pickup. Swerving a bit, the driver struggled to keep the wheel steady. That task became near impossible after Sixto shot off a second grenade, though it failed to hit, the truck swerved off the road and ran directly into a nearby oak.

The tiny Chevy sat wrecked as the squad approached, hoping to finish the job. The front of the vehicle scrunched up like an accordion after meeting the tough tree. Kate sat among the trees watching for any approaching trucks while the rest of the squad cleared the truck.

"They're not slaves." Noted Atila, looking at the driver who lay dead, resting on the steering wheel. Sitting him up a bit, Atila cleared him of any loot and returned to the side of the road to keep watch.

Shooting the two travelers, Sixto agreed "They aren't shit, anymore." The quartet went back into the woods to keep watch while their friends dug deeper and deeper into the facility, unearthing slaves, munitions, money, alcohol, cigars/cigarettes, riches, and something that stood out beyond everything else. It made their little excursion worthwhile. Realizing what it was assuaged the pain in Brian's arm.

After their reinforcements and getaway vehicles arrived, the location was secure, for the moment. Having plucked a moderately sized box of cherry-vanilla cigars from the stock, Ian lit one, puffing on it for a bit, before meeting up with the newly freed slaves. Enjoying the familiar scent, Ian watched as the smoked danced with the cold night air. He watched as the slaves lined up to meet him, after being given their dinner that the slavers recently denied them.

"We, The People, hereby declare all of you free!" Ian calls, before being cut off by one of the slaves who spoke up.

He seemed to be cleaner than the rest of the slaves. He looked about, filled with confusion, asking. "We were enslaved by The People! The slavers you killed, were they not on your side?" The rest of the free men and women became unsettled until Christine and Carrie explained what the raiders were doing.

"No Luke." Christine called. "The ones we killed were definitely not The People." She determined, removing her black and white, paisley bandana. She explained the situation that unfurled at the train station, and how easily Ian's men dealt with their ex-masters and the aliens, simultaneously, and without suffering a single casualty. "Only XCOM would be capable of something like that."

Carrie adds "The slavers impersonated them, but when they were put to the test, they failed miserably." Their words, and survival corroborated Ian's claims and persuaded many to join their cause. Those refusing to join were given rations, and a safe ride to the nearest free city. To repay their new friends, the recently freed acted as lookouts and informants in the free cities plagued by raider attacks.

Luke Van Damme, became a contact well known by The People. He was given a job at one of the local bars/speakeasies, but more importantly, he was reunited with his family who had feared that he was long dead.

As the vehicles carted the liberated People away from their makeshift prison, a handful of them stayed behind, prepping the building for it's destruction. Mick, Kate, Atila, Carrie, Christine, Maria, and Ian stood a safe distance away from the doomed facility. On that night, the three of them, Atila, Carrie, and Christine earned their skull bandanas.

Mick and Kate sat in a grey pickup bed, holding each other, watching as the building shrunk further into the night, then erupted into a fiery, red-orange cloud. Lowering their masks, they smiled to one another.

Passing the old zeppelin, they noticed it was tagged. On it read the following…

" **AND AS WE WIND ON DOWN THE ROAD.**

 **OUR SHADOWS TALLER THAN OUR SOUL.**

 **THERE WALKS A LADY WE ALL KNOW.**

 **WHO SHINES WHITE LIGHT AND WANTS TO SHOW.**

 **HOW EVERYTHING STILL TURNS TO GOLD.**

 **AND IF YOU LISTEN EVRY HARD.**

 **THE TUNE WILL COME TO YOU AT LAST.**

 **WHEN ALL ARE ONE AND ONE IS ALL.**

 **TO BE A ROCK AND NOT ROLL."**


	6. Chapter 6: Dream on

_**Chapter 6: "Dream on"**_

"Today's the day!" Kate calls to her husband from the small living room space of their hotel room. Mick let her know that he heard and understood her with an easy one word reply. Looking in the mirror, he checked to make double sure he'd got his facial hair trimmed up the way he wanted. "We've got to call XCOM." She reminded, pryingly.

"Yep, you're going to leave. All over again." Mick grumbled, displeased that she wouldn't stay with her family, but he knew she still had a job to do, and for all his displeasure, he couldn't help but feel that she would be better off with XCOM. Even she knew it. Locking up, they left the building.

Elsewhere, Ian, Samson, and Sixto sat at a bar having a jaunty pint. Samson recalled that he saw them all over the news, after their doings in Georgia. He flipped through a couple of channels and found press coverage of the.

"We shouldn't have did that, Boss…" Samson grumbled in a worried tone. Raising an eyebrow, Ian was surprised at the soldier's reaction. "…coz that bandana makes my ass look fat!" Chuckles Samson, taking a large swig of the heavy, dark beer. "Damn good thing it hid my identity, those alien fucks wouldn't hafta shoot me. I'd die from embarrassment!" Samson continued, leaning on Sixto, who laughed just as hard.

The trio left the building, saying their goodbyes to their friends. Buzzing down the sidewalk, they eventually arrived at the hotel they'd fashioned into a headquarters. It was one of the largest, most elaborate speakeasies in history, hidden in plain view and none knew, unless they were in good with The People.

"Baby, Kate's ready to contact XCOM." Maria called, urging him to join her and introduce himself to their leader. Noticing he was a bit tipsy, she angrily cautioned "Don't disgrace us..." Luckily, he'd operated under conditions that were far more strenuous. "…we've also found out about the 'cargo' from the train." She adds, in a whisper.

…

John was called to the bridge by Central who seemed happy, for once. He explained that some of their informants knew of a fight that went down against some raiders and The People. The latter of which decimated the prior, razing the building as they rode off into The Advent's closet. They haven't been seen since.

"Whatever they went there for, they got it. With ease." Central adds, explaining that these People were a forced to be reckoned with. "Luckily, they're a far cry from the average raider."

"They even work in the free cities with some of the resistance groups around the southern and coastal areas of North America." Adds Shen, checking some information she'd compiled on the illusive group. John took a minute to process the information, recalling when Joji showed him the breaking news, regarding The People staging an execution of Advent's troopers.

Tygan noted the similarities, between the two groups, many of which The Commander, Central, and Lily couldn't help but agree with.

"Who am I to disagree?" John asked, rhetorically. Looking into the glowing center of the room, where the hologlobe is typically projected. The group had searched a while, before finding Luke Van Damm, who was delighted to give them a few tips, after telling them that The People found one of their wounded and nursed her back to good health. "Did they give you a name?" John called out, hastily.

"Yea, she said it was Katie." Luke recalled, telling the XCOM staff that The People were a force of good. The news of Kate's survival made XCOM speed their way to the southern part of the U.S., before long they got to meet the group of legend.

The positive news of her sister brought the young woman to tears, while sitting down on a nearby tabletop, all she could do was ask "She's alive?!" Herman spoke encouraging words to her, after giving her a hug. While the two of them were talking about Kate, Central hastily tried to establish a secured line.

"She sure is, even Mick is still kicking." Ian confirms, making way for his two family members who greeted XCOM happily. "Commander, you guys are hard to find, but now that we're all together…for the most part, I've got info on some Advent activity I know you'd want to see." The People's leader offered. The factions talked a great deal, regarding the truth about the Advent's Blacksite. Ian explained that upon the train he and his People found acid baths that had been tweaked so they were easier to transport. XCOM's operatives weren't too surprised that these People had some similar knowledge on Advent.

"Whatever they're doing there, it's big." John thought to himself, adding that even in the late hours of the night, the place had constant guards and traffic, all of which were with the Advent coalition. The groups decided to meet up and conduct a joint operation, but before that they had to find a quiet place to get their plan set up.

"Where are you from, sir? How do you know my soldier?" The commander asked Ian, figuring that someone like him wouldn't just take in a terrorist, especially one working for the most infamous group of the latest century.

Looking around to be sure he was the one being addressed. Ian answers. "The Republic of Texas…but I was born there when it was still part of the U.S." A couple of the American soldiers caught what he said, their eyes glinting with a sense of pride, they bore a smirk. They hadn't been to any of the free cities in some time. The poor bastards hadn't even seen the U.S. since they lost Kate.

"Does it still look the same as it used to?" Naomi called, having heard of the old superpower prior to the first alien war. "You know: 'From sea to shining sea'?"

"Sorry, all that stuff is long gone." Mick interjected, shaking his head left to right.

It was nearly a week before The Avenger could make its way to the southern U.S, but when they did they found The People prepared a warm welcome for them. Jana nearly flew into her sister's arms. Her, Mick, and Kate shared a group hug, struggling to breathe as the young girl tried to hug the life from them.

Ian welcomed them, shaking their hands, before showing them into the meeting area. The XCOM operatives followed him into the building. All this time, The People had their skull bandanas on, after John, Jana, Joji, Herman, and Naomi were seated they removed the signature face scarfs.

Moving to their seats, Sixto, Maria, Mick, and Dante sat at the table with the rest of them. Ready to do business. They discussed many things, mainly their enemies. Raiders, Advent, Slave traders, and the like. After seeing the differences between them, John explained that his first impression of The People was that they were nothing more than raiders, but was happy to find that he'd been mistaken. Mick felt like scoffing audibly, but he kept his all rude comments to himself and sat silently, watching John and Ian rattle on from behind his rimless glasses. He knew how monstrous they could be, but he also knew Ian would want to lure these flies with honey, rather than vinegar.

"How did you guys manage this entire time?" Herman asked, referring to the hotel that The People commandeered and called home, after establishing a seemingly impenetrable fortress and a command bunker within their building's basement.

"You must have been from the military?" John guessed, judging by their organization, and the overall successes and behavior of the group.

With a nod, Ian asked if they had heard of The Marshals, knowledge to which very few were privy. John and Joji were the only two who heard anything about them.

"We were killed off and scattered to the wind and sea, but that suits us just fine, we'll be the broken glass beneath their feet, digging in like caltrops." Ian explains, before adding that they were not unlike XCOM, in this regard. "The last bit of us were found by Mick, and Myself. We merely started from scratch." He continued, remembering the numerous amounts of people he'd led and lost. Ian later admitted that they'd searched for XCOM for some time, hoping to join them. John merely promised to speak with his superiors about their induction. Trading a few more bits of data, most of which related to the Blacksite's location and possible goals. The factions went their separate ways.

Kissing his wife, Mick said his farewells to her and her sister.

"So now what?" Maria asked, shutting their door. "What if they say no?" She worried, taking her normal clothes from their small closet.

None of her questions seemed to matter, Ian got the information he required. While he and John were alone, as XCOM returned to their airship, John talked to the guerilla leader about the location and coordinates of the Blacksite.

"So, now we're gonna go home." Ian answers, before kissing his girlfriend.

He tried to do something romantic, but she stopped him and asked if he understood what he was saying, because she didn't. Withdrawing from her grasp, Ian sighed, elaborating on a scheme he'd been conjuring while talking to John.

"It's been the only thing on my mind since we first contacted them." Ian mumbled, looking out into space, still clearly unfocused. The typical signs of his gears turning. "I think we might not even need XCOM for this one…" He began, knowing that his team had more willing participants than XCOM, and they would know the land.

Sure this would only be a failure, Maria warns "If we fail, they'll kill us. Not even Law abiding citizens are allowed there!" Maria knew they'd ran from Advent for years, because they have the numbers, power, money, and even the planet. "We hide for a reason." She reminds, but despite her opinion, Ian chose to set his plan in motion.

Popping open a beer, he called up his cousin, who shared a view similar to Maria's.

"Do you guys think I'm just gonna march us up to their compound and say 'Hi. I'm here to fuck you up with extreme prejudice, and a slingshot!?'" Ian asked angrily, beginning to rant.

"No, but I think we should wait for XCOM, at least we know how well trained our allies will be." Mick suggests. Assuring that he'd refine his plan, Ian asked Mick not to tell XCOM, at least not yet. With a sigh, Mick conceded to wait for Ian's plan to be revised, before calling for XCOM's assistance. "Fine…fine…but quit fucking drinking while you're thinking of it!" Mick demanded, frustrated with his cousin.


	7. Chapter 7: Revolucion

_**Chapter 7: "Revolution"**_

John assured them that he would speak with his superiors about annexing the group, and everything else they'd discussed. It would take them several days to reach a decision, and prep for the mission, but little did they know, Ian and his faction planned to go it alone, using whatever resources they currently had at their disposal. They still desired XCOM's partnership and assistance, but they had to complete one more mission alone.

"You're taking us in without them?" Brian asked with a gasp. The rest of those in attendance had a similar reaction. The crowd rumbled with a combined uneasy tone, this wasn't boss' brightest idea, but would it be his last?

Addressing the gentle wail of uncertainty, Ian ran his fingers through his hair, before calling their attention. "We won't be alone. There's tons of us, and we all live for one goal." The crowd seemed to be quelled. "We know that land…sure some of it changed, but these freaks don't care much for aesthetics." He assured, ignoring the nervous feeling slicing into his stomach. Trying to replace that familiar, negative feeling, he tried thinking of the friends he'd lost to the Advent. The home and the family he once had. Feeling a familiar warmth, he recalled the anger of watching it all sizzle as it burned away from him.

When Texas first plunged into the war, it was pinned between Mexico, and The U.S., both of which belonged to the Advent coalition. The attacks started from the north and northwest, starting with Lipscomb, Amarillo, and El Paso, the Advent coalition fought it's way southeastward. From the south they took McAllen, Laredo, and Brownsville, eventually meeting in Austin. To keep Houston at bay, the Advent was sure to control Galveston. The southern force managed to snag Corpus Christie on it's way to Austin, by this time many small towns were used as hideouts, but where can you run when your enemy is everywhere?

Inevitably, Mick and Ian's family was cut down. Ian's only sibling died in their nation's capital, while Mick's two younger brothers died in Houston. The youngest during a building collapse, and the middle child was gunned down as Mick and Gus' group met Ian and Maria's. While Mick, his siblings, Gus, and the remaining Marshals, under Mick's command, struggled in their home city, Ian and Maria's group tried to reconnect with them to try to mend the hopeless situation.

Years had passed since the fall of Texas, since then the human leader was replaced with one from Advent. That Advent president grew too comfortable and got sloppy. One day, on a rally, he and his elite guards were far from the capital. The People snuck their way in, waiting for an opportune moment to stir up trouble. Hitting their opponents with shock and awe tactics, The People gunned down many of the Advent troopers on duty, allowing them to capture the new president, vice president, and some members of their security detail.

Hoping to disorient the Advent Presidential targets, Sixto, and another friend of Ian's, long passed, detonated a car bomb close to the package.

Sixto punched in the code, declaring. "Viva la revolucion!"

The force of blast and shaking earth knocked many bystanders and targets to the ground. Laying helpless and disoriented in a thick cloud of grey smoke, the president, his VP, and their protectors, could only hear an incessant dull ringing in their ears.

When their hearing returned, they could hear a word being repeated in a constant chant, "Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!" Scrambling to their feet the Advent's appointed leaders felt smothered beneath the thick heated blanket of smoke. Before they could prepare themselves, they were all grabbed from the dense smoke and brutishly injected with a strong sedative. All but one of them were injected and drug from the smoke. The VP, an arrogant individual who viewed humans negatively, treating them as though they were cattle. Feeling shooting pains in his chest, arms and stomach, he was dragged from the veiling cloud, only to see Maria, Mick, and Ian, with lowered masks, the latter of which whispered to the VP "Lucky you, sir. You're spared our wrath." before he and his family tore him apart with a hail of furious stabbings.

Later, after The People escaped with the package in tow, they fled to an unknown, secluded building to question their captives and make them pay for their family and friends lost along the way. Ian, Sixto, and Samson set up their POWs, some of which were barely regaining consciousness.

"Di di mao, GI! You sit! You sit!" Sixto referenced, forcing one of the President's guards to take a seat. That seat was set up around a table where his partners and leader quickly joined him. Taking a few large gulps of whiskey, Ian hoped to steel himself. He knew they'd scream, whimper, cry, maybe even beg, if he did things right. He just had to keep the sounds from bothering him. Every time their skin sizzled when touched with a hot iron, the bones that creaked before they cracked, crunched, or crumbled. Strangely enough the sights and smells had no effect on him, though that's what was killing Sixto. Motioning for his friend to follow him, Ian and Sixto exited the room. Ian's eerie silence disturbed Sixto, who tried desperately to strike up a conversation. The two of them decided to stop for the day to let the wounds and hunger take full effect.

Trapped with memories of his deceased family members, Ian tuned out his cousin who seemed to be taking the aforementioned losses quite well, all things considered.

"Hey, man…you ok?" Mick called, putting a hand on Ian's shoulder, trying to get his attention. "You're scaring Maria, she's been going crazy, man." Mick added, to which Ian gave a dismissive reply as he walked off, clearly leaving his mind somewhere else. Leaving Mick's room, Ian got a beer from Samson and went up to his room to check on his girlfriend.

Entering their room, he said nothing. He only sat, staring into the frothy beer he cradled in his cold hands.

Changing into her jogging pants and grey shirt, she never looked at him, nor did he look at her. It was as though they were each alone in that room.

Sniffling a bit, clearly trying to push back tears, she tried to talk, but only squeaked a high pitch note. Retrying she asked, "How could you?" The tears she tried to hold back seeped forth like blood from the captives. "What's wrong with you?!" Tuning her out Ian drank a bit more, only to have her smack the bottle from his hands, spilling what's left of it on the desk. Remaining eerily quiet, the man acted as though he spilled the beer himself, completely ignoring his girlfriend's behavior, prying, and crying. Cleaning up the liquid, he sat back down with a different drink, while it was nonalcoholic, he didn't really care. Grabbing him by the shirt, she forced him to listen to what she had to say as she tore into him in Spanglish. (Broken up English + broken up Spanish)

"You don't think they deserve to ache?" He asked finally meeting her eyes with his. "You don't think they deserve this!?" He asked shoving her away from him. The shove knocked her on her ass, but that minor pain aside, she'd never seen him react this way, at least not with her. He really had gone through drastic changes, perhaps the loss of his family, or his home, or the stress of losing it all. Lifting her from the floor, he growled one last question to her. "You don't think we need to get some freebies in, for the family…and our home?" He asked pinning her to the wall, reminding her of one last fact shared by their entire band of militants "THEY DESTROYED OUR LIVES—YOU FUCKING IDIOT—EVERY ACTION HAS A REACTION!" Making his voice hoarse from the shouting, he went about his business. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, even cleaned up the tiny kitchen portion of the hotel room, before going to the window to enjoy the view. He still shook every now and then with residual anger, but said nothing.

He never noticed that Maria had not moved from that spot, and if he did, he chose not to address it, sure that would only downgrade the situation. Sitting in the recliner, he remained, until snapping out of the destructive mode he'd switched to. Staring off into space, he felt Maria walk over to him and sit on the arm of the recliner. Hugging him, she grumbled that she was sorry, a sentiment that he returned.

"You're a dick, Ian…but you're my dick" She conceded with a sigh, kissing him on the cheek.

Jokingly, he asked "That's why you beat me every so often?" Giving him a love tap, she laughed, saying that the moment was gone. When the two of them got their heads straight, they talked about what he and Sixto were doing in the basement of the hotel. Ian already explained his argument, when he pushed his girlfriend around moments ago, now it was time for Maria to dispute it, however she couldn't find a reason for them to stop.

"You know I won't stop what I'm doing to them. We got so much intel from them, it's fuckin' glorious." Ian explains, before admitting that what he and Sixto were up to was absolutely deplorable, but it was necessary. Any information they gained was scrutinized, and corroborated by multiple sources, before it was accepted as _the truth_. Maria whimpered, remembering the noises that emanated from the room. It didn't take much convincing to keep her out of the basement. She wouldn't even look at the door that led to the stairway connecting the rest of the building to the underground rooms.

Some time later, Ian went down to the special room to extract more information, only to catch howls of pain, evidence that someone had already gone in. Sixto was upstairs with a few friends, so then who in God's name was working these guys over?

Much to his surprise, Mick had taken up the grim hobby, after hearing Sixto mention it to Samson.

Briskly switching his attention to the creaking door, Mick gave his cousin a quick nod, before hammering a chip of wood under one of the guard's fingernails, before applying pressure to the area.

Zoning out a bit, just enough to replace the screams with something that wouldn't bother him, he remembered other things, Maria, music, his friends, family, etc. After some time, Ian and Mick gave the president and his security detail a moment of cessation, after some coercion that wielded positive results. Taking some time from the break Ian and Mick exchanged tactics, explaining what methods they found worked best.

"I got an idea." Ian declares, with a snap of his fingers, he headed for the garage. Upon his return, Mick noticed he retrieved a few metal folding chairs, the discarded grill of a truck, and a blowtorch. When asked what he planned to do with the junk, the guerilla leader set up the metal chairs and rested the grill vertically, using one of the POWs to hold it in place, after a bit of tinkering, he ignites the blowtorch with a low steady flame, focusing it on the backrest of the metal chair. "And the rest is conduction." He called watching as the guard was slowly grilled alive as the rest of the captives looked on in horror.

The light switched from red to green, with a loud buzzer that pulled Ian from his memories.

Opening the sliding door, Ian watched as his squad shuffled their way up to the door, sliding down their ropes, welcoming them back to Houston.

"It's almost like we never left!" Sixto called looking to the ominous facility that had its back turned to the wooded area.

Waiting a bit as his friend reminisced and took in the view, Ian jokingly quotes the words of R. Lee Ermey "I will motivate you, Pvt. Pyle! Even if short dicks every cannibal on the Congo!" Raising his bandana, Sixto covered his smile and chuckled as he slid down the rope with Ian following shortly after.

In total, The People's numbers were twenty-four units, six soldiers packed into four groups. They amassed in the woods behind the facility to rehearse their plan.

Delta squad, a group comprised of the local resistance members who were part of The People, would keep the wooded escape route safe. Luckily for Delta, they were far enough from the facility's grounds, meaning there was little to no chance of a member of security passing by.

Charlie squad, made up of Brian, Atila, and some more locals, were going to assault one area of the facility with a volatile combination of specialists, riflemen, and grenadiers. This distraction would be fine-tuned with the aid of Bravo squad, led by Mick, this team also included Dante, Christine, Luke, and some other freed men that lived in the hotel/headquarters. This squad would back up Brian's squad with sniper support, specialists, and grenadiers.

Lastly, Alpha squad, led by Ian, would take Maria, Sixto, Samson, Carrie, and some other nameless person beneath Ian's chain of command, into the main building, literally cutting through some of their defenses, using rangers and grenadiers. Their objective was to retrieve the sample that John made mention of whenever they met with XCOM. Sixto and Maria were the only two grenadiers in the squad, the rest of them were all rangers.

"Why did you call my squad Charlie? Is it coz' I'm Vietnamese?" Asked Atila, nearly pouting at the insult.

"No, you're-fuckin-not!" Protests Samson, putting out his cigarette in to thick snow.

"Bah! You're right. I was just shitting you" Atila admits to Ian before playfully punching at Samson for calling him out. Samson, underneath his laughter, promised that they would go drinking when they were done with the mission. After easing the tension, and dividing the forces, the game was on. They made their way out of the woods and into position, as planned.

Seeing the signal, Brian's squad opened fire on some of the troopers, Vipers, and sectoids with a lethal volley of grenades. Bravo squad followed their lead, bombarding a different portion of the facility, scattering several hostile units that tried to regroup for a countermeasure. Both Bravo and Charlie continued this for a while longer, each one rotating between firing and reloading, so that the barrage seemed unending.

"Don't let up! We'll blast our way through an entire company, before we stop!" Brian threatens, watching his and Mick's squads blast their way onto the facility's doorstep. The barrage went on for some time, but not as long as Brian had hoped, needless to say, it wasn't as effective either. It did get their attention, leaving a pink muck that mixed with the snow. Some buildings were also split open, but no additional damage was caused. The two decoy squads, Bravo and Charlie, resorted to firing conventional rounds, for they rapidly ate through their explosives during the barrages.

Staggered, but not undone, the Advent forces managed to fight back, brushing off the explosions as best they could. As any rational person would assume, the enemy forces were sure to keep their assets secured, despite the battlefield just beyond their doors.

Carrie opened the sliding doors, revealing a room with more acid-filled pods stacked a few feet high, luckily for them, their opponent's focus was elsewhere, so the room clear. They figured there would be more pods here, but they did not know exactly how much. The amount they could see disturbed them, but despite this they pushed forward. Inching closer and closer to their objective.


	8. Chapter 8: Gimme Shelter

_**Chapter 8 "Gimme Shelter"**_

The battle raged on outside as Alpha scurried about the building, searching for their objective. Sliding into a room similar to the one they entered through, they hid from a trio comprised of two Advent troopers and a Muton who hurried into battle, passing up the six interlopers.

Samson and Ian were up front, they chose to push the others along, after seeing that things were clear. The group was set to leave the room, only to be stopped by Maria, who felt that something was off, thanks to her chip, but before she could warn anyone, three lightly-armored Mechs swooped in, opening fire on first person they seen, and as most stories go, that would be the nameless guy. He took four to the back and fell over dead, letting out a small yelp.

Ian and Samson fired their weapons, lightly damaging two robots, before their enemy could open fire a second time, Maria tossed an EMP close to the trio, watching them crumble after it detonated. Hacking up an approaching Sectoid, Carrie advised the team that three more robots were not too far off, and repeating the trick, Maria killed those three. Hurrying to their objective, they reloaded their weapons, prepping for another round with Advent. They fought their way into the room and retrieved the sample, but why was this so easy? Had they become that good? They wondered, looking to one another as Samson secured the sample. When things go this well, one of two scenarios take place; Either they were as talented as they thought, to snatch a victory in the land where it was at first a defeat…or it will be a trap. Unfortunately for The People, this was indeed a trap, and a damn good one.

A Viper's tongue wrapped around Samson's right arm pulling him, and the sample, from one of the three open doors. A Muton ran in as he was pulled out, locking blades with Carrie. Maria and Sixto stood guard from the first entrance, but they were eventually pinned down by two Mutons and a Heavy mech who provided suppressing fire, keeping the two at bay. One of the Mutons hurried through the second door, easily slipping passed Sixto and Maria who eventually had to reload, but instead of doing so, Sixto launched a couple of grenades decimating the two attackers, and breaking a sizeable hole in the wall. The first Muton that got away was gunned down by Ian, but the one that followed it found Samson struggling with the Viper. Cutting off the man's arm the Muton pocketed the sample, then knocked out Samson who lay on the floor bleeding. Ian and Carrie barely held off the first Muton with their swords, so when the second one came, both had their hands full.

Choosing to strafe past the swings, Ian's offense failed after the Muton grabbed him with one hand, flinging him out of the third door, like a ragdoll thrown by a pro wrestler, the man tumbled and slid into the walkway, dropping his sword on his way out. Carrie was eventually clobbered and subdued. As for Sixto and Maria they were surrounded and tazed by a few troopers.

Ian tried to fight some more, backing himself into one of the small rooms with the stacked pods. The Muton's expression turned into a rough, ugly smile as it nodded to the man.

"You want to die fighting? I oblige you." Grunts the Muton, readying his sword. Waiting a bit, so that Ian could draw his knife, the burly alien began sweeping his sword with a brutish skill that only his kind could muster. Dodging, Ian elbowed the large creature's gut, but it simply chuckled and kicked him away. "You should use your dying wish to get your sword!" The Muton taunts, swinging the sword. Counting to himself, Ian counted two swings, then a third overhead swing, performed with both hands. Dodging the third swing, Ian hurried past the opponent, lightly slashing its right forearm and bicep as he hurried by. Trying to kick the back of the creature's knee failed, for it reached back, elbowing the man's chest, knocking him off balance. Turning to face Ian, the Muton grabbed the man's head and slammed it onto one of the pods, chipping it so that some acid began to dribble from the tube. Still dazed, Ian struggled to rid himself of the stars, only to have the opponent splash some of the falling acid onto one small side of his face. Feeling the searing corrosion eating through the sensitive tissue, Ian screamed and reached for his face, only to have the Muton slam his head against something else, knocking him unconscious. The creature summoned medical professionals to have the acid removed, but by the time they arrived the powerful acid ate up more skin, and eventually took out his right eye, luckily for him, he was out for that part.

Maria scrambled to Ian's side to see if he was unharmed, then she began to lose her cool when she seen what the acid had done.

Pulling her away, the Muton that fought her boyfriend informs "He and One arm will live." The group was reunited with the other two attacking squads, a portion of which were killed. The survivors of these two squads were Brian, Atila, Mick, Christine, Dante, Luke, and a freed slave. Having rounded up the insurgents, the Advent troop's appointed leader, the Muton that fought Ian, announced that their plans were not only thwarted, but they were to be put to death or imprisoned for terrorism.

"Which is second in command?" It questioned, after lining them up, unknowingly leaving Delta squad hidden in the woods. Mick and Maria stepped forward, exchanging glances. Maria's glance was that of anger and immense sorrow. In her opinion, she knew Ian the most, or at least better than his cousin. She could speak for him. Mick's glance burned through her, like the acid did his cousin's face, but this was not as superficial.

"Not when I'm around." Mick calls, pulling her back, as he stormed forward. Putting up a fuss, she was quickly restrained, but the Muton declared that she could speak, and to refute Mick's prior claim to fame. They argued a moment, until a loud gunshot shut it down.

Their spines quivered as the unnamed freed slave fell forward, then Luke, followed by Atila, and lastly Dante. The four were dead before their bodies landed on the grass.

"Who speaks for you?" The soldier grunts, angrily, looking to the remaining People, but none of them moved, except for Ian, who slowly rolled over, struggling to lift his weight. "It is over, sir. You lost!" It declared, smiling its ugly smile.

"I speak for them…and I say: This is far from over…and we've yet to lose." Ian grumbled slowly, lowering the medial wraps that secured gauze pads over the burned portion of his face.

"Such great medicine, we have. How do you feel soldier?" The alien asked, before being interrupted by an informant, speaking in the Advent's tongue, informing that they had not applied anything other than a cleaning solution to remove the acid, and bandages, for he'd rejected it all, even pain medication was refused. "No matter. You still lose soldier. Shame really; If you persisted you'd have won." He figured looking around at the body count caused by The People. "How does it feel to be 'A shot away' as it was said?" He mocked, looking at the remaining rebels. "You have lost. You have no home, or planet. You even live because I willed it. YOU LOST!" The Muton reminds, gesturing to himself with a thumb. "You will get a moment with your 'People'. Make it good, yes?" It grants, watching as Ian shambled his way down the line, acquiring the flags from the recently deceased.

"You've fought bravely…but in the end I failed you." He advised, brushing off the dirt from the bandanas. Moving over to Christine and Carrie, the girls saluted removing their masks, lowering their faces in shame and defeat. "Don't look away from them…" He ordered, folding their bandanas. "…They're no different from us. I've tortured tons of them and I've seen them squirm under lighter circumstances." He admits, shaking their hands, before thanking the girls for their service, before proceeding to Brian. "Can't win em' all, brother. It's been fun." He sighs, after saluting his friend, gathering his flag, and shaking his hand. Proceeding to Sixto and Samson, he apologized for his failure, telling them their kidneys are still better off, before apologizing to Samson for his arm.

"Fuck that! I'm a lefty!" Samson admits, with a genuine smile.

Chuckling, Ian shook his opposite hand saying "That's the spirit, man."

"Someone'll take our place, Boss." Sixto assured, with a nod, shaking Ian's hand.

"I say we haunt these bastards." Ian decided with a smirk, before moving on to his family members. Maria kissed him goodbye, then salutes and hands over her bandana. Telling him she loved him. "The only one who could ever grant me solace. I love you too." He sighs, before finally speaking to Mick.

"Fuckin' told you so!" Mick reminds angrily, after hugging his cousin.

Rolling his eye(s) Ian grumbled "Yeah, I know." Before taking Mick's bandana and going through the procedure.

"You'll kill us, but eventually more People will take our place, this is far from over." Mick swore, glaring at the opposing commanding officer. Standing tall, Mick nodded to Ian, before declaring "Power to The People!"

Harsh winds blew, removing leaves from the trees in the distance, displacing debris that blinded the enemy. Looking around, the aliens spotted the Avenger, followed by tons of attack choppers, and reinforcements. One of which was Delta, returning to finish their mission. The choppers the aircrafts leveled the facility, forcing enemies and friendlies to hit the deck. Scrambling to their weapons, The People finally had the upper-hand, forcing their opponents to surrender. After the commotion was over, and the airships sat down, the Muton spoke with Ian, commending his success with his hands raised to surrender. Holding a shotgun, Ian said nothing, before resting the muzzle on the creature's knees and firing, forcing him to fall forward, screaming in agony.

"Now it's over, and you lose" Mick called. "You're unlike us, because you are lesser than the soil that you're dirtying with your blood and tears! You do not deserve to bleed upon our ground, for you are still subhuman! You're only allowed to because we - The People - SAY SO! How does it feel to, finally, know your betters? How does it feel to be…how'd you say? 'Just a shot away'?" Pumping the shotgun, Ian fired one last time, killing the groveling enemy as it's subordinates watched in horror as Mick declared "Power to The People!" and signaled for The People to fire into the crowd of Advent POW's, leaving none alive.

"Ian! - Goddamn it! - What have you done?" John called angrily, watching as Boss stood with his team. Facing away from the operative and the Avenger, Ian slid his bandana over the bottom half of his scarred face, without a word. Holding up the reclaimed sample for john to see, Ian lowered it eyelevel to check out what his friends died for. As he figured, he was unimpressed by what he saw. He frowned, ignoring the great pain it caused him, as he quietly slid the tube into one of his chest pockets.

Riding back in their respective choppers, The People and XCOM returned to the hotel. Sixto saw fit to play "Gimme Shelter" By The Rolling Stones, after hearing the alien quote it. Ian sat with Mick and Maria, the latter of which held him closer than she had in a while. Looking around at the empty seats of the chopper, Ian was thankful that he didn't lose anyone else. Sure, they did just score a major victory, one that may have even instilled a thought of terror into their enemies, but the loss of the subordinates outweighed the victory. Even when fighting other humans, soldiers died every day for less than what they achieved, but despite that knowledge, Ian was still displeased. This victory felt as though it was a failure.

"How's the face, Boss?" Called Brian, offering his friend a heavy dose of painkillers.

Looking at the pills, Ian grumbled "It's as good as it looks." Some of them made a few jokes, to help preoccupy Ian's mind. Sharing a laugh, they returned home, listening to more great music, and thinking about what XCOM was going to say to them.

The freed soldiers like Carrie and Christine didn't think too highly of XCOM, sure they were better equipped, but that doesn't always make a difference. They were a big deal, but the women felt that they could do without their help, and this success proved it.

"Hey, fuck those guys! We can win without them." Christine added, receiving a glare of disapproval from Ian and Mick.

"That's not the point." Mick begins to argue, before dismissing the negative comment. The girl tried to explain herself, knowing that his wife fought for that faction. "Just forget it." Mick sighed, rolling his eyes, and looking to someone else. The girl stammered a bit, trying to find something else she could say to fix what she said, but gave up, seeing that he didn't want to talk anymore. Feeling like a kid butting in on a grown-up's conversation, she looked away from him, silently eyeing her boots for a while.

Before the chopper's door slid open, Ian appointed Mick to speak on his behalf, while he was taken to their infirmary. After it opened a mixture of XCOM operatives and The People were present.

"Puta madre, Boss." Michael gasped, examining his friend's face, while helping Maria walk him to the medical wing. "You got your shit lookin' like some melted cheese. What happened?" Michael adds, holding open a few doors while Maria explained everything that took place.

Kate, John, and Janna got the summary from Mick and Sixto, but they refused to hand over the sample they acquired from the mission, instead they told XCOM they would wait for Ian to recover, before handing over anything.

"Had you not called us at the last moment the man would've got you all killed, and you still wanna follow his orders!?" John reminds, angrily, striking a cord with Mick, but the man let John continue for a bit, looking for a point in his words while he greedily asked for the sample. John felt that Mick should just hand it over, so as not to waste any more time. Ian's plan was to do things in a hurry, after all.

Finding no point, and growing quickly tired of the man's bitching and prying, Mick cut him off, angrily advising "You will respect me in my home or be removed from it! Your commander sent you as an envoy to retrieve a sample that I have. Not the other way around." Settling down a bit they talked in a lower tone, never flaring up, afterwards. Forced to wait a while longer John, Janna, and Kate got comfortable, after Ian's strength came back to him, and the pain from his ass-kicking subsided, he and Maria went to see the XCOM operatives.

Pouring himself a generous glass of whiskey, Ian got his cousin's wife to shoo everyone from the room, excluding John, jokingly explaining "Mommy n Daddy gotta talk."

"What did you gain from that!?" John asked, still somewhat annoyed by Ian's haste.

Sipping from his glass, Ian looked at his damaged face in a nearby mirror, comically adding "Definitely wasn't an eye." Instead Ian told John that The People had something to prove, for they were truly different than the run-of-the-mill raider, and the big bad terrorists, XCOM. They knew many people could not differentiate the three factions. "We just wanna watch them squirm, we have no real goal, per-se." Ian added, referring to the Advent. "Hopefully, one day, we can reclaim our home, but I wouldn't count on it." Shooting a glance at John, Ian got back to the discussion of the sample, putting in John's hand. "Just let us know what you find out, and call us if you are ever in need." Ian added.

In the end, John and The Commander, and Ian agreed that the sample would be traded for a few thousand supplies, some tech, and friendly communications between the factions. Ian had always planned to hand over the sample, he even told Mick and/or Maria to hand it over if he couldn't himself. The groups were both satisfied and established multiple comms towers in and around The People's territories. They even installed a tower on the rooftop of The Hotel.

Ian looked back over a treasure map, marking other hidden caches and slave dwellings. The map was found when they raided the hidden supply depot owned by the raiders. He recalled how Mick said it made the entire trip worthwhile. Even now, after they used it to find the resources and manpower to attack the Blacksite, Ian was glad he kept it around, so much so that Brian framed it and hung it up in the rec room. Sure, XCOM swooped in to save them at the last minute, but without that map, that mission would've been a failure.

Acknowledging the map, Samson and Sixto stood with Ian in silence. Slowly a revelation came to them. A deeper meaning behind it all. Samson was missing a hand (and half of his forearm) and came from the UK, Sixto was a minority with dark skin and a foreign accent, and Ian was a Captain who had an eyepatch and fought with a sword. They even drank themselves stupid on a weekly basis…

Feeling the exact same revelation hit them simultaneously, Ian slowly added "Don't anybody…say a damn…word…"

A still silence hung around the three for a moment, before Sixto shouts what they were all thinking: "WE'RE FUCKING PIRATES, BRO!"


	9. Chapter 9: Ich tu dir weh

_**Chapter 9: "Ich tu dir weh"**_

Ian, Mick, and some of their close friends were finally allowed to board the Avenger, having seen nothing like it, they were impressed, for though XCOM was once destroyed, they could see that doing so was not easy. Overall, The People were glad they were on XCOM's side. They were greeted by Central, and eventually the mysterious Commander.

"I've got job for you and your men." The Commander offered. He seen their faces alight with enthusiasm. "This mission is a bit of a smash and grab, but in light of your recent success, I'm sure your People can see it through." He adds, signaling for Central to pass a large tan folder.

"Here is everything The People need to know, you will start at 1100 hours, tomorrow morning." Central informs, shaking Ian's hand, after passing him the intel. From what Ian and Mick could tell, they'd been sought after for their cruelty, and their barbarisms, but this isn't what bothered them. What bothered the two cousins was the fact that they were clearly being used, and despite proving themselves, they were still viewed as heathens by some of XCOM's operatives.

Sitting around in XCOM's rec room/bar, Mick, Sixto, Michael, and Ian talked about how the two leaders felt about XCOM was clearly using them to do their dirty work.

"Dirty deeds done dirt cheap." Sixto reminds nudging Ian who snagged a half full bottle of Jack and some glasses.

"C'mon dude, who kidnaps a motherfucker in broad-ass-daylight? In the middle of the city?" Asked Michael, passing a cup of soda to Mick, before raising a glass to their successes in Houston. Being reminded of what they did to the president, vice president, and their security, Michael conceded replying "Touché, Boss. Touché." After knocking back a second shot. Rolling his eyes Michael acknowledged Naomi approaching, gingerly. "We've got a fan comin'."

Mick and Ian turned their barstools to see the girl who stopped, nervously gawking at the quartet, like a young deer in the headlights of a fast-approaching truck. The girl, with a nervous gulp, greets the four of them, shaking their hands.

"Don't worry, Ian just looks ugly, he's actually a good guy." Mick remarked, giving his cousin a playful nudge, hoping to ease the tension. The four men laughed a bit, watching the girl's timid shell dissolve before their eyes. After talking for a bit, she joined the men at the bar, sharing a few laughs as she got to meet her new heroes.

Pouring Naomi a glass of juice, hold the alcohol, Ian asked "So you're their newest recruit? Where are you from?"

He could see her reliving the events leading up to her involvement with XCOM. The question threw her off a bit, but she answered anyway. When she tried to mention her friend Seiko her voice creaked a bit, so she stopped midsentence, gulped a bit as she revaluated her reply. Rather than go into the specifics, Naomi just said a friend contacted XCOM and they helped her escape her execution. She spoke no more about her escape from Japan, instead she switched to the politics, and the way Japan changed over the years. When referring to her homeland's change, the young woman viewed it as a colossal downgrade.

"Now I'm here for people like me, because there's got to be something better." Naomi admits, referring to the deteriorated state that the Advent kept Japan in. Remembering seeing hundreds of young men and women, her age, lined up and shot for frivolous reasons.

"There is, we've just got to…" Mick paused a bit, he wanted to say something to cheer the poor girl up. He wanted to say something meaningful, but he had nothing. His mind went blank.

Filling the bank, Ian adds "…become strong enough to fight for it."

Nervously switching her view to the guerilla leader, she asked, voice shaking, "Do you mean kill for it?" She watched as Ian nodded lightly, not wanting to tell the girl the awful facts. He and Mick knew the validity of those words, and though they didn't express it, they knew she would come to see the world the way The People do.

"Sometimes, we've gotta' suffer with the truth or be slaves to a lie." Michael interjects, wisely.

John and Joji came by in search of Naomi who they assumed was crying her eyes out, but instead she was learning a powerful lesson, one that would hopefully see her through the harder days of her life. The words she would hear when she would fight to reclaim Japan. These sentences would aid her the way Ian's pictures of his family and Maria helped him when he was forced to stoop to torture just to save lives.

"Are we interrupting?" John called, before calling for Naomi to accomplish some daily chore she forgot to fulfill. Before leaving she thanked their guests for their moral support and wisdom, before running off to do some chore. Noticing the girl's cheer, John wondered what they could've said to her that the XCOM operatives didn't. Walking away from the room the captain pondered that a bit. Joji stayed a moment trying to greet them and introduce himself, but John cut them off, angrily calling for Joji to follow him.

"Ya think she's gonna make use of that lecture?" Michael wondered to his three friends as he tidied up the countertop.

Sucking his teeth for a moment, Mick answered. "Hope so, but I really think she's gonna die before even getting close to Japan."

"That's rude, give your new waifu some credit bro. She's been through a lot." Sixto jokingly adds, mentioning the way Naomi looked at Mick.

"Nigga, please!" Mick dismissed.

"Dude, I was trying to point out that to you while she was here. YOU SAW ME WINKING!" Ian joked, hoping to lighten the mood. Michael and Sixto almost fell to the floor with laughter. Mick still dismissed what his friends thought were advances, and exited the room just before the cackling trio.

The People were allowed to walk the ship freely, after they mingled a bit, and got the general layout of the ship, they decided to exit the airship and return home. Heading for the door, Mick and Ian were called to from down the hall. Looking around, they spotted Naomi and Joji searching for the four of them, the two came bearing gifts. Such as fruits, snack bars, and a full bottle of Jack Daniels.

Handing over the presents, Naomi remembered that she didn't get their back story, referring to the cousins, asking "How did this start for you two?" She seen their expressions as they formulated a child friendly story to tell her. She grew embarrassed and tried to withdraw her question, but the two soldiers were happy to answer.

"Well, we're here for a reason a lot like yours. We lost some People close to us, and now we go around certain areas, helping people by giving the Advent trouble when and where we can." Mick summarized, leaving out many details. The girl asked about Ian's face, to which Ian chuckled a bit, before happily labeling them battle scars.

"Always shoot Mutons. Swords are ineffective." Ian advised, hinting about what happened. The girl hastily asked if his People were soldiers from before the war, to which he confirmed with a nod.

"What rank did you two hold?" She wondered, eyes gleaming as though she seen two superheroes.

"We're still Captains." Mick added, watching as the girl gasped and stood at attention, saluting them as she'd been commanded. Laughing a bit, Ian noticed as John quietly approached with another man they had not yet been introduced to. Watching as Mick handed the girl Dante's faded bandana, from before they adopted the half-skull versions, John cleared his throat. Calling their attention. Telling them that his partner needed to talk with them.

The unnamed man looked at the quartet as though they were vermin. Much like raccoons hurrying from the airship with their food and drinks causing annoying distractions. He greeted them stiffly, nodding at the cousins, and ignoring the other two. The cousins noticed that he too bore the rank of captain.

"Good evening, gentlemen." The stranger greets, pausing before calling them gentlemen. To Mick and Michael, his entire demeanor screamed "Fuck these heathens". Ian only caught his facial que, lastly, Sixto didn't really seem to give a shit and ignored the man. From then on, the rest of the talk was between Mick, Michael, and the stranger, and it was laced with passive aggressive jabs being thrown back and forth. This continued a while until John broke it up, reminding his rude partner that he had some info about The Advent VIP. Mick made one more backhanded comment, before he returned home with some of the gifts, and Sixto close behind. Rolling his eyes, the disrespectful captain explained that the Advent's VIP would be skipping his latest stop, the captain explained that it was something having to do with politics, and that it wasn't anyone's place to ask questions, but merely to act.

"So, bottom line here…" Ian called, returning the folder to the informant. "Fuck do I need this for then?" Before Ian could discard the folder, John explained that it lists the next stops the VIP was heading to. "Great." Ian replied, giving the rude Captain an angry glare. Opening the door, Maria and some other members of Ian's group strolled in with Kate to see the ship. Looking at the other guests enter, the man locked eyes with Maria, greeting her only. Introducing himself as Captain Lee Roy Brown, he offered to show her around, to which she quickly accepted, flashing a smile to Ian. With a coy smile, he asked if things were all settled, for he had "other matters" to attend to.

"You've my permission to leave, soldier." Ian answered opening the bottle of Jack.

"I was speaking to John." Brown informed with an offended tone. Taking one last angry look at Ian, he took off behind Maria. Leaving the ship, Ian could hear Maria and Brown giggling together, while he gritted his teeth and drank deep from the bottle.

Michael noticed what just happened, and tried to comfort Ian. Asking him if things were alright. To answer his question, Ian gave Michael the abridged version of some arguments between him and Maria, behind closed doors. Explaining that things were getting bad Ian found himself growing angrier, promising "I'll-fuckin-kill that puta" as he and Michael walked away from the ship. Stopping a moment Ian tore the eyepatch from his face and he crushed it into the dirt.

"Hey, you good, man?" Michael asked, looking around to make sure nobody saw Ian's shitfit.

Laughing to disguise the anger, he looked over his shoulder at Michael, so that the short guy could only see the scarred side of his face as he claimed ominously "Better than they'll be". That night dragged on a bit as The People prepped for their next mission. Staying up a while, Ian noticed Maria never came home. To preoccupy his yelling thoughts, he cranked up some music and finished off the rest of the bottle of Jack. Morning rolled around, and upon waking, Ian noticed that Maria still hadn't returned to The Hotel since she left with Kate and a few of their friends.

Walking with his squad, Mick had them ready their equipment and ordered them into the chopper. On the way to the location he thought back on a conversation he had with Michael and Ian. Michael explained that Maria had been behaving differently and She and Ian hadn't been on good terms lately, then Ian chimed in, telling his cousin about what happened, after he left ahead of them. Turning back to whatever bottle he sought solace from, Ian stopped talking, allowing Michael to take over the conversation. Whilst the two men chatted away, Ian tried to sort the thoughts in his head.

"I'll sit this one out, so I'll be here when she gets back." Ian decided, tidying himself up while maintaining some form of tactfulness, despite his inebriated state. "I'm gonna get some-fuckin'-answers!" He pledged, angrily staring into the emptied bottle, before casting it across room causing it to shatter.

Rolling his eyes, Mick straightened his glasses chiding his cousin on his drunken behavior, before passing him a broom and dustpan.

With a sigh, Mick advised "Just try to take a quick nap or something. Have someone wake you when she arrives. Maybe y'all won't wreck the place." Nodding his head, Ian simply grumbled in agreement as he rubbed his eye. "Good luck, man." Mick adds, patting his cousin's shoulder, before saying goodbye to Michael and boarding the chopper.

The team, ahead of schedule, hurried to the AO with the plan of digging in, and waiting for the Advent VIP. Mick led a five-person squad into the area, this comprised of Mick (CO & Sniper), Christine (Ranger), Carrie (Ranger), Sixto (Secondary CO & Grenadier), and Naomi (Specialist).

The young XCOM operative covered her face with the old biker bandana she just recently received. She could feel Carrie and Christine's scorn, but she wasn't too worried. Oddly enough, they reminded her of some girls in a high-school she moved to years ago, she recalled that some of the female students didn't take to her right away, and gave her a hard time. Later, whenever her new girl status subsided, they treated her as if she was one of them. This was almost the same, excluding the hail of bullets being fired back and forth.

"Hey, where did you get that bandana?" Carrie called to Naomi, recalling Dante's bandana by its faded color.

Butting in Mick declared that he had a bit of an epiphany. "Sixto, play something…lively for us." Acknowledging, Sixto played "Welcome to the jungle", by Guns N' Roses. "That works." Mick shrugged in acceptance. "As you know we're now conducting some joint operations with XCOM, we're on one right now." He began, before introducing Naomi. "Naomi is their operative. She looks and sounds like them, but she has our heart and our drive." Mick explained, looking around the group.

"I do?" Naomi asked with a gulp. While she was glad to be included, she wasn't sure if she could live up to Mick's expectations.

"Yes. You do, because your goals are the same as ours, except the home you want is Japan, and the home we want is The Republic of Texas." Mick explains, before bringing up more similarities they shared. "So this is your chance to earn your bandana. A baptism by fire, if you will."

Feeling a new sense of pride, Naomi thanked Mick. "I won't let you down, sir." She promised with a salute, just before the light flashed to green.

Meanwhile, at The Hotel Ian did exactly what Mick cautioned him not to do, but instead he tore up his and Maria's room. The walls had holes, the recliner was toppled and slashed in multiple areas, and many other things were either bashed, cracked, or otherwise destroyed. Washing up a bit, he got dressed up and moved some of the bigger mess out of the way, before going to greet his love interest. The woman, returned to a loving embrace. Ian even told her that he'd acquired a few leads on some Advent activity. The two walked and talked about that for a while, but little by little Maria felt that something was amiss. Her chip, acting as a frail imitation of Spider-Man's Spider sense, was going off, bothering and bewildering Maria. She also took heed to the fact that some of the residents would not make eye contact with Ian. Before long, Samson and Michael went to see the couple, who behaved as though nothing happened. Nearing the area holding the basement door, Maria became suspicious, and asked why Ian was leading her to that area of the building, for he knew she feared the torture room.

Pausing a bit, Ian turned to face Maria, struggling to start his sentence. Ian rubbed his face a moment, starting to say "Baby…No: Maria, honey…I-" He stopped a moment looking at his three partners, before sucking his teeth, grumbling "Fuck it." Quickly throwing a jab at Maria, Ian caught her off guard. Feeling the jab connecting with the right side of her face, Maria took a few steps back, and tripped over her own feet, falling to the floor.

Samson and Michael gasped and withdrew after seeing Ian attack and draw his pistol on his own girlfriend.

"You hit like a bitch!" Maria retorts, remaining seated. "You'd better shoot me, cuz if I get up from here, I'm gonna take out your other-fucking-eye!" She threatened, easily brushing off the man's punch.

"Shut up!" Ian orders, allowing the woman to stand. His friends followed them until they reached the door to the basement. Maria began to worry a bit, recalling some of the sounds she'd heard some time ago. Trying to get her boyfriend to reconsider, she talked politely, telling him that they could just as easily talk in their room. Despite her attempts at reasoning, Ian shoved her against the heavy door, binding her hands with a zip-tie.

"C'mon not this room. Ya know I hate it." Maria seemed to plead as Samson opened the door. While Michael entreated.

"And what was that one thing I hated?" Ian reminded, pulling by her arm at gunpoint. "I know you remember that!" He reminded, referring to being cheated on. "You could've just told me how you felt. You could've easily avoided this…but you chose otherwise." He scolds, pushing his girlfriend down the last two steps, causing her to fall forward, into the torture room. Michael pleaded with Ian to reconsider and go easy on the lady, but the angry man refused.

"I can't believe this is happening." Michael said silently to himself while nervously rubbing his head. "I don't think I can watch this shit." He calls to his friends.

"You're free to leave…I won't fault you for it." Ian called, noticing Michael turn to leave. After one friend exited the room, Ian tied Maria to a chair. The girl shook like a freezing leaf when hit with cold winter air, but she retained some composure. Ian worked her over a bit while Samson looked on in disbelief, for never could he have imagined this. Seeing that blows to the face wasn't enough, Ian commended her, promising he'd do better. "And, as you can guess I mean 'far worse'." He adds, searching for some bladed object. "Look on the bright side, darling: We'll match." He jokes, pointing to his face.

"Fuck you!" She shouts, spitting blood onto the floor beside her.

Grabbing her face to hold her still, he retorts with his well-polished evil glare. "No. First punishment, then the fun stuff." Finding a scalpel, he showed it to her, asking "Think this'll work?" Looking at the scalpel for a bit, she remained silent, shifting her eyes from the scalpel to its user, and back again. Still holding her face firmly, he quotes. " _Ich tu dir weh…tut mir nicht leid…das tu dir gut. Hor wie schreit._ " Upon uttering the last sentence of the chorus, he gently swept her bangs from over her eye where he previously pointed the small blade. He could see Samson begin to squirm, for even he could feel it coming. Releasing Maria's face, he dismissed his nervous friend. "You don't need to see this little family affair." The man nodded, and hurried out the door leaving the two alone. Calmly sitting on the arm rest of another nearby seat, Ian watched the man scurry away in fear, speaking positively of him to Maria. "What a devout friend he is." Ian noted, happily, before meeting Maria's gaze. Her nose bled a bit, and one side of her face was lightly bruised, at best, but the man before her didn't notice that. Instead he noticed her eyes, though their color was the typical brown, he still adored them. Resuming their prior business, Ian grabbed her face the same way, and returned the scalpel to its position, ready to jab out her eye holding it there for a bit in silence. Ian finally lowered it, kissing her forehead, before undoing the belts that held her arms.

Looking deep into the gateways of her soul, Ian felt something crash into the damaged side of his face, shaking his vision and staggering him.

"You-fucking-prick!" Maria shouts, after getting up. She hit him several more times, unfortunately for Ian, Maria's hobby was boxing. "What the hell was all of that about!?" She asked, kneeing his stomach, and punching his face again knocking him to the floor. Lifting him to his feet she demanded an explanation.

"We had to make it believable." He explained with a grin, before getting socked one last time. Maria eventually calmed down and discussed Maria's deep cover mission, referred to as "JUDAS X-RAY". When Ian and Mick's faction met with John's, John, after being alone with Ian, explained that there was intel being leaked to the Advent, from an unknown source within XCOM. The Commander knew of The People for as long as they have gone under that name, and for some time before. He wanted some of their members to look into the leaks, for nobody under his authority could do much about it. The outside help, The People, were sought since The Commander was freed from the Advent facility, as far as he was concerned, the traitor was the one that helped bring XCOM down the first time.

John explained the job to Ian, adding that only a few could be in on the secret, so Ian chose Mick and Maria. From John's faction, only he and Kate knew of their true reasons for meeting The People. The secret mission went well and many things went according to plan, despite Ian's beating from Maria for playing things too close to the vest, starting with his eyepatch he crushed into the dirt leaving the Avenger, as a sign for Maria. Then his trashing of their hotel room in a drunken rage, to mislead some of their friends who noticed Maria's absence. Then the rough treatment he gave his lover that served as the perfect excuse to talk alone with her in the only soundproofed room in The Hotel. Explaining her findings, Maria settled down, agreeing to help Ian with his battered face.

"Good thinking, but I hope you didn't send any of our guys on missions from Captain Brown." Maria began, as she helped clean a cut over her boyfriend's eyebrow. She explained that she and Kate found some evidence that might tie Brown to the intel leaks.

Elsewhere, Mick had a strange feeling creeping into his stomach, as he soliloquized "Why does it feel like there's gonna be suck?" Repositioning his glasses, he cursed to himself, before sliding down the rope to the impending shit-show below.


	10. Chapter 10: Just a shot away

_**Chapter 10: "Just a shot away"**_

Mick and his squad huddled behind an old discolored building, laying out their plan, looking to the busy road in the distance. The five of them couldn't find a good excuse for five lightly armed men and women to be skulking around an Advent city, especially one that was so devout to the coalition. Mick decided that they would all scale a building, and wait together in one area. Two of them would be watching the roof access points while the rest would be watching for the VIP.

It took some time, but eventually, along came the VIP. He, and his guards, stepped from the limousine, waving at some people in attendance. Mick signaled for Sixto who tossed a flash grenade. It rolled down the red carpet, as though it was expected, the grenade blinded all in attendance. Smoke grenades followed, then gunfire taking out some of the Advent's policemen, and the VIP's guards. Their mission seemed to be going well enough, they cut down a few Advent soldiers and aliens, before giving Christine a window of opportunity to snatch the VIP.

The woman acquired the package, and returned to their building, only to be stopped by group of two troopers, two mechs, and one muton. Before ducking into cover, Christine noticed that the muton wore a garb that differed from the typical muton armor. The VIP pulled away from the female terrorist and hurried to the large brute, ratting out Christine. Sending the VIP to a safer area, the muton commanded two troopers, and a mech to stay with him. While the last mech was told to destroy the roof. Before exiting the two-story building, the hulking alien searched for Christine, but found nothing.

Christine, snuck back to the roof warning her friends to displace, her warning only helped Sixto and Carrie, for Mick and Naomi reacted too late. An explosion crumbled the roof beneath them, causing Mick and his young friend to fall to the floor below. Though Carrie made it to safety, her sword did not. It lay near Mick upon the dirty tiled second floor. Sixto, Carrie, and Christine hurried off the roof and onto the nearby balcony, taking cover where they could find it.

With his large machine gun, Sixto fired at the group of enemies that escorted the VIP away from the collapsing building. Sixto and Carrie cut down other nearby enemies, before they had to reload. Christine made quick work of some troopers that lobbed a grenade onto the balcony by returning it to its sender.

"They're getting away" Warned Carrie.

Stepping out of cover Sixto tried one last thing, before the package got out of sight.

Elsewhere Mick brushed off some of the rubble, drawing his sidearm. Having lost his glasses in the fall, the nearsighted man searched for his friend. His search was interrupted by flashbacks of his brother who died in a building collapse due to a similar event in Texas. He felt the pain of the fall as he dragged his heavy body around the second floor calling for Naomi. He found nothing on that level, but this worried him more. He found his way to the first floor where he seen what was left of Naomi, crushed beneath bits of rubble with blood running down her forehead. The teen lay motionless beneath bits of the ceiling. At the sight of this Mick felt a stinging rush of warmth in his gut, similar to what his cousin felt.

This hard feeling drove him into a frenzy, he snatched her assault rifle and fired on two approaching Advent troopers, after blasting holes in their Captain. Some sectoids hurried his way, followed by a Viper. Mick fired on that trio, wiping out the two pink aliens, much to his dismay, the mag was empty. The Viper took this opportunity to wrap itself around Mick, only to have the man fire his Judge revolver into its scaly belly twice, beneath the creature's plate of armor. Keeping count of his ammunition, Mick subtracted two from six, before hurrying after the VIP. His squad seen him making his way there, so they provided cover fire for him. Despite their efforts, the VIP scurried into an armored Advent chopper. Mick hurried his way to the chopper, blasting through four more before putting away his pistol.

Just as he set foot inside the chopper, he felt two large hands pull him out of it. Those large hands were those of his adversary, the large muton that ordered the robot to bring down the building. The beast flung Mick away from his friends' field of view.

"How does it feel to be so close, and yet so far, human?" The Muton asked, jogging Mick's memory. The man remembered the one Ian executed at the Blacksite. "I am Belial, The fourth of his name. The Fourth King of Earth." He introduced, drawing his sword. Mick answered by drawing his pistol, failing to fire for lack of bullets. Having no other option, Mick drew Carrie's sword, pointing the tip to Belial IV. Laughing, Belial IV gave Mick a brief history of the mutons bearing the name of the infamous demon. "Long ago, before the common religions were formed, your kind worshipped creatures like Belial, Baal, and Astaroth, praising them for giving you food, science, astrology, and so forth. We take their names to recreate your past of devout servitude."

"Sure…okay, but I'm agnostic, so I don't really give a shit." Mick admitted, standing firm. "Whoever you are: You're-going-to-die."

"I seen footage of your People attacking one of our installations. Your leader killed King Belial the third of his name, The Divine Composer of Annihilation." The alien sighed, remembering his predecessor as one who was known to be far too lenient. "You won't receive that same treatment from me." He cautioned, before swinging his sword at Mick who evaded a bit, hoping to step around the large alien. Noticing Mick trying to position himself near the chopper, Belial strategically fought him further from it, telling them to take off ASAP.

Swinging his sword, Mick taunts "Hope it had audio, so you could hear him scream like a bitch." As he figured, Mick's words angered the Fourth, but the plan backfired, for the alien rushed the man hoping to ram him with his shoulder, when Mick sidestepped, Belial grabbed the blade and Mick's body armor and tossed the man a few feet away. The alien tossed the sword away, like a used toothpick, before storming his way over to Mick who lay dazed from the throw.

The Fourth grinned the way the Third did when it fought Ian. The creature raised its sword high, prepared to end Mick's life. Still the man focused on the Advent chopper flying towards the building where his squad took refuge.

Belial IV quotes victoriously "Then Jesus asks 'What is thy name?' Ad it answers 'My name is Legion; for we are many.'"

Four loud shots snatched the leader's attention. The man looked around for the source of the shots, then to Belial who grunted, before taking four more shots to his large torso. Eventually, the alien lacked the strength to hold his sword. Letting the weapon fall to the ground, the hulking mass toppled to his side looking at someone just behind Mick.

Looking behind him, Mick found Naomi repeating what Ian told her whenever they spoke on the Avenger "Always shoot Mutons." The girl hurried to his side, firing two rounds into Belial's face, thus ending The Fourth King of Earth. Battered and bloodied, she fell to her knees, very much alive, despite her injuries. Finally recovering from the throw and shock, Mick helped her walk. On their way to the broken building, Mick was sure to acquire Carrie's sword.

Carrie, Christine, and Sixto seen the enemy chopper as it flew by with the door agape and the VIP exposed. The latter of the trio readied his weapon thinking to himself "Say something cool…"

"It's just a shot away!" Sixto called firing a round into the VIP's chest, causing the chopper to swerve midair and drop the VIP's corpse onto the pavement with a thick thump. The chopper retreated to safety, leaving the corpses of the VIP and King Belial IV behind.

When the evac chopper returned for them, Ian and Maria slid open the door to see two lightly wounded soldiers, one heavily wounded soldier, and two that didn't have a scratch on them. The two were joined by John and Joji who piloted the chopper. Helping Naomi into the chopper Ian and Maria got a brief summary from Mick, afterwards John made a comment about their success being a miracle.

"You say that as if you had no faith in us at all." Mick noticed, becoming angry at the captain.

"Actually, he's right. We've got bigger problems than a pantheon of elite, alien warriors." Ian explained that the mission was rigged. Mick and his squad was supposed to be killed by Belial IV and his soldiers. On the ride back, Maria, John, and Ian explained to their friends what had been going on.

"So, you did find something?" Mick asked Maria, rubbing the bridge of his nose, unwilling to deal with more problems. The chopper took them back to their base, and as the group exited the metal bird, John apologized to Mick for bothering him and his wife. Shaking John's hand Mick decides "Find the leak, and give the person to me for interrogation, then we'll be square…but thanks for being honest."

"Well, we've made tons of headway, so I'll give her some time off." John called watching Mick turn away with a pleased smile. The two men parted ways.

Entering the Hotel, Mick was sure Ian pretended a bit too hard. "I hope he didn't break anything important."


	11. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

_**HAPPY NEW YEAR!**_

Hello everyone, it's John. I hope you've had a great year, and I hope things go better for you in 2017. I would also like to say thank you to all of you who have checked out my content so far, please know that I do plan to do so much more. I hope all of you will be around to check it out.

 **HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!**


	12. Chapter 11: No friends of mine

_**Chapter 11: "No friends of mine"**_

A new morning dawned, bringing a beautiful sunrise. Mick admired it from Ian's hotel window. Mick, Ian, Maria, and Kate discussed what should be done about the organized group of aliens. Based on what they learned, the aliens/Advent coalition hoped to keep their band of terrorists in their sights.

"While we slept, there were a few raids on some of our friendly towns." Ian read from a beige folder, mentioning key information while highlighting it for future refence. The four of them talked a while, much to Mick's despair. He was sure this would be an easy day. Mick hoped to remain in a deep slumber until twelve, but instead here he was, commencing business at the ass-crack of dawn, and on his day off no less. The man was no longer tired, instead he was merely annoyed. As opposed to wanting to crawl back into bed, the hapless now man wanted to bang his forehead upon the nearest wall until the meeting ceased, for he was now too tired to sleep.

"Look…" Mick interrupts, sleepily scratching the top of his head. "…we'll wait for another strangely named alien, capture him, or one of his friends and do what we do best." The other three agreed, though the women were still uneasy about the torturing branch of their plan. Seeing the looks on their faces, Mick rolled his eyes recalling that there was no other way. "These warriors will fight to the last breath for their cause. They won't readily give us intel. You know that." Ian shrugged, agreeing with his cousin while their better halves reluctantly chose to follow them. Samson came over to see his friends, partially entering the room, he popped open a dark beer bottle, generously passing it to Ian. The man admitted that he was trying to get into the right mood, before their mission. Mick cautioned Samson not to get too far into the bottle, the man nodded, before taking another chug.

Later when John, Central, and the Commander met with Ian and Maria, the one-eyed leader explained that he was hoping to deploy Maria, Sixto, Joji, Jana, Samson, and John to hit a supply train that was just outside one of the afflicted towns. After everyone was in agreeance, they were dismissed, returning to their respective armories to prep for Operation SILVER STREAK.

Ian sparred with Maria, hours before the mission. He didn't quite understand why, they both knew she wouldn't be able to get any real practice from it. Maria fighting Ian would be considered bullying. The two trained for a while, hoping to run down the clock. Their friends readied their weapons and rehearsed the plan, afterwards they all huddled around in the infirmary to watch as Mick handed over Dante's skull bandana to Naomi, as reward for her success. Naomi shook Mick's hand, promising to be of better use in future missions. Even Carrie and Christine were in attendance, waiting until Mick and their Boss concluded to congratulate her.

"Don't be modest, Naomi, you did great. If you weren't there to help I'd be dead." Mick acknowledged, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Meeting his eyes she wiped the tears from hers, thanking her mentor.

Elsewhere, after the ceremony for Naomi, Jana and Joji trained with John and Herman at their shooting range aboard the Avenger. Comparing their sheets, the four found that, aside from her skills in medicine and computers, she also was quite adept in shooting. She was the best out of the four of them. Joining up with The People, John, Jana, and Joji seemed to fit right in. Joji made the squad laugh and roll on the floor. Meanwhile, Jana learned many things from Maria, she had been like a second sister, Maria even awarded her the skull bandana, before the young woman went off with her sister to join XCOM. John proved to be an intelligent and capable leader. He shared Ian's mental strain, constantly asking himself if he could've saved just one more of his units, or if he could've done things better. At the same time, he had Mick's stoic demeanor when pondering the upcoming battle.

Later, while on the mission, the crew found the railroad and rigged it to blow. When the pretty red button was hit, the train was derailed. Everything proceeded as expected, and the squad plundered the train while receiving no casualties. When the Skyranger sat down, John's squad had to make a brief trek through the wooded area.

"Good job, Maria." John commends, never experiencing the prowess of a Marshal in actual combat. "I bet the Marshals gave The Advent hell, until the bitter end." John imagined, watching his footing and surroundings.

"We still are, Captain." Maria corrected. "We were just forced to leave Texas. We'll just call it a tactical retreat." She explained. "Ian likes to be poetic and say 'They're all dead', but The People who used to be part of the Marshals know that we're very much alive." Maria informs, before spitting on the memories of the Marshals who chose to join Advent, instead of taking the death penalty.

Resting his hand on the door of the airship, John commented on how he detested traitors, before sliding open the door to see Captain Brown looking down to him. Firing a .44 magnum into the man's chest, just above the heart. Brown stepped aside to let a quartet of Mutons exit the Skyranger, weapons at the ready.

Watching her commanding officer hit the ground Jana panicked and fired wildly at whichever alien she thought she could hit, missing every one, until a muton rushed her, knocking her unconscious. The rest of the team got behind cover and returned fire. The chopper began to lift itself off the ground with Brown inside. Sixto shot a grenade near the chopper hoping to bring it down. Though it killed one muton the blast only rocked the chopper before it sped off.

"Fuck!" Sixto shouts hurrying after the chopper with Joji following close behind, shooting one muton that tried to pursue them. Maria and Samson remained in cover, hoping to get a chance to rescue Jana.

"This ain't workin' out." Samson complained, dodging a blast that would've hit his face. Tossing a flash grenade, Maria stunned one of the aliens, allowing her friend to mow him down. The remaining alien commended the duo, hurling a grenade in their direction. Luckily the grenade's explosion wasn't what it was supposed to be, it's blast radius was very small, only causing minor damage to Maria, dizzying the woman. While Maria sat dazed, beneath the tree, Samson noticed the alien hurrying over while spraying a green flurry of rounds into Samson's general direction. Waiting for the alien to get in view, Samson fired his shotgun, as fast as he could, into the muton's chest-plate, failing to penetrate it. Rather than slay the creature, it merely pushed him back a few feet, before running out of shells. Luckily, the muton dropped his plasma rifle onto the grass, due to the tremendous force of the shotgun. Drawing his sword, Samson watched as the strangely dressed alien shook his head left to right, drawing only a heavy sigh in response. The muton didn't even bother taking a fighting stance.

"A one-armed soldier?" The alien asked, before having a good laugh. "Y-your people couldn't last in a fair fight with one of mine!" He reminds, before motioning to Samson's metallic appendage. "This is what is known as a handicap." He chuckled, aggravating Samson even more by offering to fight with one hand behind his back. Shaking off her dizziness, Maria tried to shoot the Muton, only to have her gun jam, tossing it away, she ran over to the two arguing soldiers, causing the alien to laugh heartily.

"You don't look like the other mutons" Maria noticed, while the alien caught his breath.

"Oh, definitely not." He chuckled, before introducing himself. "I am the brave Marquis Naberius." He informs looking at Maria who stood ready for a fight. "Are you seriously thinking of fighting too?" The hoarse voice muton began to laugh, before allowing Maria to take a free hit. Drawing back, she punched the creature as hard as she could, hurting him, but not staggering him. Naberius shook his head a bit, before he tried to speak, Maria cut him off by punching him again, this was repeated twice more, before Naberius stepped away from the angry woman, before angrily drawing his sword to engage the two of soldiers.

"Why'd Brown set up our friends at XCOM?" She asked, watching as the alien stopped to think about her question.

"Well, we expect you humans to conform to our ways; Talk our talk, walk our walk, and dance our dance…" Naberius began to explain. "…unfortunately, XCOM doesn't dance, and if they don't dance then they're no friends of mine." The alien laughed, before charging at Maria. A loud clang echoed through the forest, causing birds to scatter into the air, calling Joji and Sixto's attention. The two continued through the forest, barely keeping the chopper in sight.


End file.
